Now, I wonder what your thoughts are on folks who are afraid to be seen running around throwing flour in the light of recent anthrax issues. Our recent Red Dress Run was on October 13th, 2001. A harriette was seen dropping flour in a shopping center by a non-hasher. It was reported in Sunday's paper that a call came over the police radios concerning this incident. Fortunately the pack was past that area quite soon afterward. Lucky for us it was called in just five minutes after the harriettes had on-outed. Thank G that she had opted to use little pieces of red yarn as we walked through the two-story shopping mall down the street.
Often we run through heavily wooded areas and grassy flats. Flour is great on the bark of a tree but doesn't help a bit in the grassy flats. Our solution has been to use toilet paper that actually has a flour (flower) design printed on it. You can even follow it thru the trashiest areas of town. Other solutions have been colored crepe streamer, shredded office paper and colored flours. I wonder if colored flour (other than white) would get the same scare reaction that the white flour sometimes gets.
As GM, I'm rolling the options around in my grey matter. However, it's the Hare that will have to take the blame. For the time being it will be left to our Hares and Harriettes to decide the medium of preference. I've even battled with the thought of alerting the local law enforcement to our little group. Unfortunately we live in a city and state that does not tolerate drinking in public and we are suspicious that our information might be used to hunt us down for our unlawful conduct. Our Fondling Father purposely spouts "It's easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission."
On On,
Smoking Wiener
E-mail from DipStick, Tornado Alley HHH:
Our hash has been known internationally for the anthrax scares back in 1999 and 2000 by the use of flour in downtown Wichita.
Afterwards we made arrangements with the local authorities to contact the 911 dispatcher prior to each run with our substance of trail markings, starting time and place and a radius of trail. Also we negotiated a NFZ (no flour zone) in downtown Wichita.
We have used spray snow, shaving cream and chalk in the NFZ. Recently our Hare Raiser came up with ground corn as a substitute substance for general use. I used it recently with great results. The 911 dispatcher was satisfied too with the yellow granular substance. It takes slightly more than flour and its visibility is good. Cost is slightly more, from your pet store, but in bulk from a feed store should be near the same cost. I am sure your pack may come up with other ideas.
My concern is that we can continue to hash in a manner that is responsible and allows us our adult playtime. We have a great country and we have a great tradition in hashing and we should be able to work this out. Use your talents and communicate with your local authorities to inform them before you have problems. Our country deserves your cooperation for the public's interest. I believe your authorities will work with you after their initial shock with our prior methods.
On On,
DipStick
An intemperate e-mail I recently sent to the hashers in my town:
Dear Tucson Area Hashers,
It's Thursday night. My daughter Green Flagger just got a call from Dud Muffin. One of the topics of conversation was the HAZMAT response to last night's Larrikins event.
Pardon me, but Jesus H. Christ, you
bunch
of
fucking
idiots
. . . doesn't ANYONE in the jHavelina or the Larrikins Hash subscribe to the Hash House Harriers e-mail list? Aren't ANY of you aware of the fact that the hashers from coast to coast are getting busted for throwing flour on busy streets, shopping malls, public parks, etc, etc? This ain't just happening in Tucson, it's happening everywhere!
Think about it. Of COURSE civilians are going to misunderstand. Of COURSE police and fire departments and HAZMAT teams are going to respond to reports of white powder on the ground. Of COURSE police and fire departments and HAZMAT teams are going to have no sense of humor whatsoever when we tell them we're just hashers and this is what we always do. Doesn't anyone remember what happened to the Phoenix Wrong Way HHH when they had a HAZMAT run-in a couple of years ago? They got the bill! For tens of thousands of dollars! Okay, they got out of it . . . but does anyone really think that in today's climate of fear we're going to continue to skate?
It seems to me that a sensible hare would think about these things and refrain from throwing flour down in public places. Use flour in the washes and shiggy, fine, but how about using chalk or maps or something else that can't be confused with anthrax in public places? How hard can that be to do?
We don't need the police breathing down our necks. What we do, if we had to ask permission, the answer would be "no." The hash, when you get right down to it, is an underground activity. You don't want the authorities involved. How many of us could make it through a DUI checkpoint on any given Wednesday or Saturday night, driving home from the hash? Be honest. A lot of us would have to give up hashing. Forever.
So quit exposing us to the authorities, hashers! Use some goddamn common sense!
I will be happy to tell you what I REALLY think, and to expand on these comments, at the next hash or mismanagement meeting.
On On,
Flying Booger
p.s. If you think, as I suspect many of you do, that hashing was invented in, and is confined to, Southern Arizona, I invite you to subscribe to the HHH List by sending a message to with "Subscribe Hash-L" in the subject line. You might just learn something from other hashers' experiences.
Immediately followed by my groveling apology:
Dear Tucson Area Hashers,
How do you like me so far?
My strongly-worded message of a couple of nights ago has broken some eggs, as I knew it would. I believe most of you understood what I was trying to say, but for the few who were offended or insulted, please allow me to clarify:
I know that Tucson hashers are aware that there is a larger hash community. But some of you have a "we don't care how they do it in New York" attitude, and that's what I'm trying to fight. As a matter of fact, the hashers in New York - and everywhere else - are just like us, and we can learn from them, just as they can learn from us.
One of the things I've learned lately is that hashes all over the USA are running into hysterical people, and police and fire departments are being called out to investigate flour marks. Some hashes are experimenting with different ways to mark trail, and some hashes (Washington DC HHH, for one) are now calling the police the day before they hash. A couple of weekends ago the hares for the Oxford HHH in Mississippi were arrested while laying trail, and last week there was an announcement on the hash e-mail list that both hares received two-year community service sentences and were put on probation.
If I upset you, I apologize. Perhaps I should have laced my message with ;-) smiley faces so that people would know when I was writing with tongue in cheek.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel strongly that the less the authorities know about us, the better. I think we can continue to hash in Tucson without winding up on anyone's radar scope, but not if we continue to throw flour around in public places. Maybe we ought to get together soon and come up with some ideas on marking trail in these crazy times.
On On,
Flying Booger
And the latest news from my own hash:
Over the past two weeks we have tried mixing blue or red tempura paint powder (available at art stores) with our flour. It makes a nice baby blue or pink mixture, and there's no way anyone could mistake it for a "white substance." Two problems are immediately apparent: one, it won't look blue or pink at night; two, the hares have to wear gloves when they spread it . . . unless they don't mind having blue or pink hands for a week or so afterward. Still, it's a start.
We haven't had any problem laying flour in shiggy. Common sense tells us it's a bad idea to use flour (white or colored) in neighborhoods or shopping areas - basically, on roads or sidewalks. In public areas we're confining ourselves to simple chalk marks. So far no problems.
Lastly, I want to talk about the idea of alerting the authorities beforehand. I admit that I called the Tucson Fire Department dispatcher before my own trail last Saturday. I thought long and hard before I did it, because I really believe that the less the Man knows about us the better . . . but in this case, I had planned a trail that would end in a heavily-used public park, and it just seemed wiser to tell the fire department shen and where I'd be laying trail, and to leave them my cell phone number in case there were any calls. As it turned out, there were no calls, and it was a great hash.
We do have one very big problem here, and that is our Mr. Happy's Larrikins HHH, which runs an A-to-A pickup hash on Wednesday nights, almost always somewhere in town. The main problem is that it's a night-time hash, so whatever sort of marks the hares make, they could easily send some good citizen into a full quiver. The other problem is that since it's a pickup hash, you never know who the hares will be, and it's really hard to get everyone to mark the same. The GM of the Larrikins was on the verge of closing down the hash, but the rest of us ganged up on her and convinced her to keep it going. But we sure could use some good ideas, so hashers, please share your ideas with the rest of us!
On On,
Flying Booger
New misinformation: I've received a lot of e-mail on this rant already. Much of it has been from folks who advocate contacting the authorities before every hash. I just want to say this about that: consider past relations between the hash and the authorities in your area before picking up the phone. If relations have been good and the Man has a helpful attitude, great. By all means let him know when and where you're going to be laying trail. But there are places where the Man is not so helpful, and highlighting the hash might bring more trouble down on you than it's worth. Some police departments have actually used advance notice of hash locations, given by hashers in a spirit of cooperation, as an excuse to bust in on down-downs, force hashers to dump their beer on the ground, and send everyone home. If that's how things are in your town, the best you can do is to keep your trails (and your down-downs) as far away from the public - and the Man - as you can. There just isn't any universal solution, it seems.