The Almost Impossible Scavenger Hunt



  1. An A-cell or B-cell battery.
  2. A television that tunes to channel 1.
  3. A 16 RPM record.
  4. A can of 3.2% beer.
  5. A FLESH Crayola crayon.
  6. A OUIJA board with a wooden heart.
  7. A clock with the Roman numeral IV on the face.
  8. A typewriter without the keys 1 and 0.
  9. A rotary phone with Q and Z on the dial.
  10. A coin dated 1 B.C.
  11. #25 AWG wire.
  12. #5 threaded screw.
  13. A 2-by-4 that actually measures 2 inches by 4 inches.
  14. An 8-inch floppy disc.
  15. A $2 watch that is NOT accurate.
  16. A $2 bill.
  17. Liquid metal.
  18. Solid liquid.
  19. Hydrochloric acid in your own basement.
  20. Element 118.


  1. Apparently, B-cell batteries DID exist in the western hemisphere and still DO exist in Europe; they're about as tall as a D-cell and about as thin as a C-cell. I found this info on the Internet, so it must be true (as the 'net is an reputable resource of reliable facts and the cornerstone of knowledge). To this day, I have never seen or heard of an A-cell. Double-A's and triple-A's, yes; single-A's, no.
  2. Old televisions with only a single VHF knob use to tune to what use to be channels 1 through 6. This was before channels 7 through 13 (and 14 thru 83 for UHF) were invented during the pre-cable/pre-satelite years. Once again, this info was obtained from the Internet and therefore must be true.
  3. The older turntables had 4 speeds: 16, 33, 45 & 78 RPM. 16 RPM records were about 16 inches in diameter and could play a good half-hour or so on one side, but had horrible sound quality and therefore were only acceptable for speech.
    • (Note A: 78 RPM records were also big, about 9 inches in diameter, but because of their fast speed they could only yeild one song per side. Back then, you had the option to either buy a single disc, or a collection of discs encased in the sleeves of a photo album book; thus creating the term "single" for 45 RPM records, and "album" for the multi-song 33 RPM LP's.)
    • (Note B: 16 RPM records actually spun at 16-2/3; half the rotational speed of 33 RPM records that in reality spun at 33-1/3. Therefore, a 33 RPM record on the 16 RPM mode would cause the song to play exactly twice as long and exactly one octave lower.)
  4. Before 1980, 18-year-old teenagers were legally allowed to drink only ONE type of alcoholic beverage known as "3.2 beer" (at least in Ohio); all other forms of alcohol were prohibited to this sect, including wine, liquor and "7% beer". The irony was that the 3.2% and 7% beer came from the same VAT, since most beers only registered about 2.5% on the Ricter scale anyway. The 18-year-old teenagers complained about it (including myself), so they got rid of 3.2 beer completely and changed the laws so that NO ONE was allowed to drink at all until they reached 21. Now I know better... if you have the luxury of cheap beer, keep your mouth shut. I wonder if they have 3.2 cigarettes?
  5. Yep, those use to exist. I've seen a few of these myself back in the early 1960's.
  6. Everyone else remembers the different designs of older OUIJA boards and how they use to be 30" across. Doesn't anyone else remember the wooden hearts?
  7. Urban legend states that using IIII instead of IV (for 4 o'clock) would balance the symmetry of the VIII (for 8 o'clock) on the other side of the face.
  8. Almost all of the old mechanical typewriters did not posses the 0 or 1 key. The number "1" was typed using the small-case "l" key; while the number "0" was substituted with the capital "O" key. An exclamation mark (!) was typed with a mixture of an apostrophe and a period, using the extra magic of the backspace key. Stangely enough, the same typewriter had keys reserved for FRACTIONS (1/4, 1/2 & 3/4), something we still cannot perform using 21st-century HTML'[backspace].
  9. Normally, Q and Z are omitted from phone dials, even though I've seen them on newer touch-tone dials. The extra letters are sometimes crowded onto the 7 and 9 buttons. I swear that I thought I saw an old rotary phone with "QZ" under the ZERO (OPERATOR) hole.
  10. You will never see a coin dated 1 B.C. Even though coins were minted long before the birth of Christ, no one could predict exactly what year He was going to be born ahead of time.
  11. ...
  12. ...
  13. I'm sure these exist, but haven't seen any at the work-place or at any hardware store.
  14. That thing does exist, at the work-place stacked on top of the archaic Osborne computer in the mezzanine, right next to the 8-track player with a REWIND button!
  15. Remember the old phrase, "It's about as accurate as a $2 watch."? Well, as it turns out, the new $2 quartz-crystal digital watch is more accurate than that $6000 Rolex! The tolerance of your standard typical cheap-o watch is specified within 15 seconds a month.
  16. These were issued as United States Notes between WWI and WWII, and printed in RED ink. The $2 bill was later re-issued as a Federal Reserve Note (printed in the now familiar GREEN ink) in 1976, but was vetoed by the public along with the Susan B. Anthony coin. Kind of a shame, as it disrupted the near pefect logarithmic integrity of the paper currency scale. Therefore, a $2 bill is not "phony as a $3 bill".
  17. Mercury, a metalic element which does not solidify unless the ambient temperature falls below -40 degrees. You can usually find this in an old thermostat or thermometer, or orbiting very close to the Sun.
  18. Glass. Before you run to your freezer to see if you have any of those ice cubes, check yours windows first. Glass is considered a liquid because it has no tensile strength; this reminds me of the "tomato" paradox.
  19. All you have to do is mix two common household chemicals togther, Clorox (Cl2) and Ammonia (NH3). The Chlorine from the Clorox will strip away the Hydrogen from the weakly bonded Ammonium, forming the ever-so-deadly HCl. I learned about this when someone at the pizza shop decided to clean the table with BOTH of these chemicals, only to inadvertantly pass out after inhaling the fumes. I think he was the same guy that fell asleep next to the meat grinder (Nitrous Oxide, he didn't lose lose a limb that night, he just caused the machine to jam while it continually struck his elbow).
  20. The University of Berkley once claimed they have found it, but now have lost it... and now it is up to YOU to find Element 118 once again, the heaviest but the most unstable of all INERT gases! They might even have it on e-bay.
    Note: it has been rumored that elements 104 through 118, and all their isotopes, have been simultaneously created somewhere in the Ukraine about 20 years ago.


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