No-Bowtie Clue Delays The Edhats

The Santa Clues and the Bicycling Bowtie Bandits were tough competition. But by the time Cluefest 2011 ended, it seemed, everyone had won.

Cluefest, an annual New Haven treasure hunt organized by The Group With No Name, has grown into a large-scale, citywide event. The ninth Cluefest, which took place Saturday all over the city, boasted 277 amateur sleuths, members of 60 teams.

“You’re signing your life away,” organizer Alison Weir suggested with a smile as I registered as a participant. It turned out I was just signing away my afternoon to the pursuit of fun, team spirit and New Haven expertise.

One of the 60 teams was ​“Edhat New Haven,” where I was placed after arriving clueless, so to speak, at the registration center in Pitkin Plaza (temporarily renamed Cluefest Drive). The team represented the local website of the same name (it stands for Everyday Happenings Around Town), which was represented by Bonny MacInnis and her brother Ryan.

I took comfort in the fact that the MacInnises, unlike me, are New Haven natives — and at Cluefest, a native’s knowledge is essential.

As a Cluefest novice, I believe I was expecting something more low-key and somewhat nerdier, possibly drawing the same kind of crowd as, say, Civil War reenactments. While I saw nobody in Confederate gray at Cluefest Drive, I did see spirited, costumed teams with such names as Ryan and the New Haven Beaches (beach attire), Booty Hunters (pirates) and Santa Clues (self-explanatory).

By the time I had taken in all of this, it was 2 p.m., and the day’s clues were being handed out to the waiting crowd.

Cluefest, for those not in the know, is a citywide scavenger hunt, based on a set of five poetic clues (listed throughout the story). Each clue led us to a location in New Haven, where each team completed an activity. We would earn points based on how many we visited, how well we performed the activities and, to an extent, how much fun we were having. As the clues were distributed, each team left Cluefest Drive — on bikes, in cars and, in one case, aboard a bus rented for the occasion — and started the race.

Along with Bonny and Ryan MacInnis I left by car. The clues could be solved in any order; we decided to start with Clue #1, which seemed simple enough to me:

For when you feel like a movie.
Bowtie needed? No, too snooty.
One for each season,
the screens are the reason,
the ​“scene” is uniquely cosy.

Of course it was the Criterion Cinema downtown, I said, and we immediately traveled there. The problem, of course, was that it wasn’t the Criterion. The Shubert Theater, too, had no sign of clue-related activity.

I should have known. Bowtie needed?, the clue asks. No. Criterion’s parent company, Bowtie Cinemas, is being rejected by the lords of Cluefest.

We decided to set aside Clue #1 and try our luck with the tastier-sounding Clue #4:

It’s not Chicago nor New York
And you don’t eat it with a fork
Don’t clam up, find your voice
Line up for your favorite choice.

Let’s be frank, my dear
It’s potato you fear,
No need to sally forth
Head east not north.

Sally forth. Sally’s. But, as Bonny pointed out, being frank seemed to be guiding us towards Frank Pepe’s. We decided to go to Wooster Street to discover the truth for ourselves.

Sally’s seemed to be closed. Pepe’s wasn’t. It had volunteers outside and a pitcher of water waiting. The task was to run a relay race holding the water (which I did myself, to the amusement of onlookers, as the MacInnises parked their car) and tell the story of the foundation of Pepe’s — it could be real or fictitious. That task went to Bonny, who regaled the Cluefest volunteers with a brief history that began with Frank Pepe coming to America from Italy in a kayak. (“He had big muscles.”)

One down.

Next up was Clue #5:

Residents do not now exist
Site of Burns’ sexy Arctic tryst
Now known as T. Latus
We liked its old status
Do you know how bedbugs subsist?

We did not. Time to turn to Google, which revealed that T. Latus referred to a dinosaur. There are very few of those in New Haven. The best place to find them, we suspected, was the Peabody Museum.

Sure enough, we found Cluefest in the museum’s parking lot.

Two more activities awaited us there. For Bonny, there was what was called the ​“corn hole,” which is just a carnival game involving throwing a beanbag through a hole.

For me, there was the tricycle.

An adult tricycle was sitting in the parking lot, and teams took turns sending members for a short loop. It seemed pretty easy, but people appeared to be struggling with it. When I took a seat on the tricycle myself, I understood why. Moving it was OK, but steering involved turning the entire body in the desired direction.

I survived the tricycle ride, and despite nearly crashing into my scorer I made good time. Edhat was performing well. Two clues complete.

Bonny easily figured out our next stop, the solution to Clue #2:

If you’re looking for a cuddle
And you don’t mind a mutt-le
[And if you don’t want to spay,
whatever stray comes your way]
Tramp on down to the beaver’s repose
For example, follow the Bassett’s nose. 

Bonny told us this was the New Haven Animal Shelter, located near the end of Bassett Street in Newhallville. I hadn’t even known New Haven had an animal shelter, and as we drove there I couldn’t help thinking that pet adoption might be involved in our activity. There’s 100 bonus points for whoever will take home this adorable puppy, I imagined a volunteer telling us as she brandished a dog. Otherwise, we may have to put the little guy to sleep.

The reality proved to be less of a commitment. Bonny and Ryan skillfully constructed a leash out of rope and wire, while I picked a piece of paper with the name of a dog out of a cup. I was going to use the leash to walk the dog.

The paper I picked had the name ​“Bibs.” When a volunteer mentioned that Bibs was ​“strong,” I had a strong suspicion that this was not going to end well. As soon as I put my leash on Bibs she lived up to my expectations. While the other dogs I saw happily walked the obstacle course laid out for them, Bibs struggled all the way, and after a few obstacles she simply sat down and refused to budge.

I had to walk away with the course unfinished. Bbut the spectators had a wonderful time, and we had completed the activity. Two clues to go.

In our visits to the previous clues we had all been pondering Clue #1 (the one about the movie theater). Cine 1 – 2‑3 – 4 on Middletown Avenue was the only other cinema we could find in New Haven, and the case for it was made stronger by the references to the number four in the clue. We didn’t think that Cluefest would have such an isolated activity — there were cyclists in the hunt, after all — but we decided we might as well check it out.

We were right. The activity at the movie theater, appropriately enough, was answering movie trivia questions, all of which involved New Haven. (One answer was the Shubert.) Two answers we knew; two we Googled. It was over quickly, and we were just one clue short of completion.

The last clue was Clue #3:

To be Ryan or Tony, you’ll want the gear
No need to rush, just come on down here
To grind or to ollie, that is the key question
Especially when school’s not your obsession
When counting your quarters, this is the 1
Just think of the pop shuv you could have spun
Channel your thinking and you’ll take the Crown
And hopefully, earn some artistic renown.

The MacInnises though this was Channel 1, a skate shop on State Street, but my suspicion was that the reference to Crown signified a business on Crown Street. After determining that Channel 1 is actually at the corner of State and Crown we rushed over to find what was probably the easiest of the activities: we just had to ​“tag” the name of our team on a large, blank poster located outside the store. And that was it. We were done.

Except we weren’t, not by a long shot. Time was running short, but we could still hit some of the bonus locations, given in (harder) clues handed out at each of the main activities. Before the 5 p.m. deadline we took the necessary pictures at IKEA and Delaney’s restaurant in Westville, both of which were guesses. (I still don’t know if we were right.)

Then it was time to hunt for the Secret Cluefest Party, the location of which given in a special clue. We got one line at each activity:

State of the Art
And new on the scene
Downtown living in a building so green
Join us on the roof to drink and be merry
Get a new lease on life that won’t be so scary.

Can you figure it out? We couldn’t, despite our best efforts. Fortunately, Cluefest had provided a hotline for stumped sleuths, and an operator soon steered us to 360 State Street. There we could soak in the pleasures of Modern Pizza, buffalo wings and an open bar while awaiting the results of the day’s festivities.

Edhat, sadly, was not recognized in the awards ceremony. Careless Whisper had the most points of any team. The Brotherhood of the Lack of Pants had the best name, Booty Hunters the best costumes. The Pooper Scooper Super Troopers Award went to the Bicycling Bowtie Bandits, for what were described as acts of community service.

The most coveted award was for Best Overall Spirit. The winners have their names inscribed on a trophy, kept at watering hole Christopher Martin’s (and not shown at the party due to repairs).

The winners at the 2011 Cluefest? Santa Clues, the team with the Christmas attire — and with one member sporting a full-length Santa Claus beard for the occasion. (As it turned out, the man wearing the beard was in fact East Rock Alderman Justin Elicker.

While I had hoped that Edhat might be recognized, the experience of Cluefest — and the T‑shirts given out to participants — were their own reward.

My advice to those interested in Cluefest 10? Keep your mind open. I couldn’t find a theme tying the clues together, and I can only conclude that Cluefest can really take you anywhere.

Jacob Cohn, a student at Carleton College, is a summer intern at the Independent.