Although Jimmy Buffet has a vast collection of deep and
intellectual songs, i think the most profound by far is Math
Sucks. I tend to agree with Mr. Buffet. Although i did well in
math all through school, i never really liked it. I preferred
science and history. Math teachers, on the other hand, were
some of the most entertaining people in my public school career.
In 7th grade, my Pre-Algebra teacher was Mr. J. He was a dead
ringer for country-western star Keith Whitley, he wore weird ties,
and we pre-pubescent jerks picked on him mercilessly.
Mr. K, my 8th grade Algebra teacher, started the day with green
pants and finished the day with white pants. Chalk dust flew when
Mr. K was explaining a concept. Sometimes, if you were very lucky,
he would have a perfect chalky handprint on his butt.
In high school, i had Mrs. B for 9th grade Geometry. She retired
after my class. When discussing dominant and recessive genes in
biology class, that teacher noted that Mrs. B had attached
earlobes, a recessive trait. Mrs. B also had a massive complex
about decades of ninth-graders staring at her earlobes.
Mrs. T, my 10th grade Algebra II teacher, was by far the
funniest of the bunch. Students did not take tests and quizzes in
her class. Instead, we had “golden opportunities” to show Mrs. T
what we had learned. If we were called on in class and provided an
incorrect answer, she would say in a hurt tone, “You lied to
teacher. You lie like a cheap Oriental rug.” When the squirrel
found its way into the school building and was running wildly
through the halls, it found its way into Mrs. T’s classroom.
For 11th grade Trigonometry, the teacher was Mrs. H. She also
spoke French.
Mr. K, my 12th grade Calculus teacher, was so appalled by some
of the rap music that his young son was listening to that he
brought the CD to school to play for our class. “Isn’t this
terrible?!” he asked, as he played for us a song whose title
was a double scatological expletive.
One or more of these people gave me the groundwork to make and
solve puzzles like this. Thanks to them, and thanks to northwestern
Michigan cacher
Whitard, whose challenging math puzzle caches made me think
that i should inflict something like this on the folks back home
I hope your junior and senior high
school math teachers were as good as mine!
I hid a cache! If a crow flies, in his typical, straight-line
fashion, from the Lorain Parks Department building at N 41°
27.641 W 082° 10.497, he will fly over this cache, and then he
will fly over Route 2 at N 41° 24.670 W 082° 10.016.
If a vulture flies in a straight line from the Burrell Homestead
Ohio Historical Marker at N 41° 27.298 W 082° 06.254, he,
too, will fly over the cache, and then he will fly over Route 2 at
N 41° 24.728 W 082° 13.470.
You do not need to visit any of those waypoints to solve the
puzzle (though it would earn you two waymarking “finds” and the
satisfaction of a few miles of driving on route 2). Instead, use
them to determine the point at which the two lines intersect.
That’s where the cache is. The cache is a sandwich-sized Rubbermaid
container, and it is hidden within 15 feet of the trail. An
encrypted hint is listed below to help out.
