What is the Half-Mind Catalog?
The Half-Mind Catalog (HMC) is an online magazine and information resource for the international Hash House Harrier community. The HMC features a searchable databse of the best and most up to date contacts and information for hash groups in the Americas. and a fun new gadget for logging
"Where Have you Hashed?" as a list of 'countries' and US States. See where you rank! Each month the HMC brings you interesting feature articles and editorials from contributing hashers around the world. But that's not all, there's much more.
How much more?
Fascinating information on hashing history and setting up hash events. The best free hash songbook you'll find anywhere, the only on-line hash cookbook, a shopping mall featuring hash haberdashery items and services from around the world (plus reviews of major hashing Web sites, magazines, and books), the infamous Doctor Down-Down, the Cool HHH Page of the Month, an archive of mainstream press articles on hashing, and an interactive forum where you can share comments and opinions with other hashers. If you have a split personality - kindly hasher by day, badass biker by night - check out the Harriers MC. If you're a fellow hash publisher (print or Web-based, global or local), you may be interested in joining the HHH Publishers Association.
Wow, that's a lot of stuff! Do you have a site map?
Sure. It's right here.
I'm an HHH webmaster, too. Can I link to the HMC?
We hope you will. Click here for some graphics and HTML code you can put on your site to link to the HMC.
Do I have to be a member to use the HMC?
No, everything on this site is open.If you want to post to the Half-Mind Forum you'll have to register and log in, but that's it.Editor's note: the Half-Mind Forum is now open, no registration or logging-in required!
How often is the HMC updated?
We update the contacts, how-to's and history, haberdashery, and press archive whenever new information comes in - normally several times a month. The songbook and cookbook are updated when half-minds send in new songs and recipes. Monthly features like the Rant and the Cool HHH Page are updated . . . (drum roll)
. . . (wait for it) . . . monthly!
Who publishes the HMC?
The HMC is, as far as we know, the only world Hash House Harrier site published and edited by an international committee of editors. We're about hashing, for hashers, by hashers.
Yeah, but who specifically?
Is the HMC recognized by any official hashing body?
- General Editor: Ra (Cairo HHH, Egypt)
- Emeritus Editor & Founder: Flying Booger (jHavelina HHH, Arizona, USA)
- Contributing Editor & Advisor: Likk'mm (Bern HHH, Switzerland)
- Contributing Editor & Advisor: Danny Choriki (NYC HHH, New York, USA)
- Rant Editor: (position currently vacant)
- Cool Page Editor: Nympho (Canberra Harriettes, Australia)
- Shopping Mall Editor: Pinky (Long Beach HHH, California, USA)
- Forum Editor: Chewie (Fat Humans Athletic Club United, California, USA)
Are there any official hashing bodies? Well, sort of . . . the last five InterHash organizing committees (Kuala Lumpur, 1998; Tasmania, 2000; Goa, 2002; Cardiff, 200, Chaing Mai, 20064) selected the HMC to provide Western Hemisphere hashing information for the World HHH Directory project. We consider that an honor, but the greatest honor is knowing that hashers everywhere rely on the HMC for the latest and most accurate information on hashing events and contacts.
What do you get out of all this effort?
We'd like to say fame and fortune, but that would be stretching things. When hashers thank us for giving them the information and resources they need to plan hash trips, or for helping them find a haberdasher to make goodie-bag items for a hash event, that's our reward.
Why do you call it the Half-Mind Catalog?
In a 1978 newspaper interview, New Zealand hasher Phil Kirkland uttered these immortal words: "If you've half a mind to join the hash, that's all you'll need." Hashers have proudly called themselves "half-minds" ever since. And the editors of the HMC are more half-minded than most!
Can I reprint information from the HMC in my Hash Trash or Web page?
Hell yes, that's what this site is all about. If you're reading this online, you're in the minority. Most hashers still get information from hash trashes, newsletters, printed directories, and mimeographed flyers. We hope online hashers will copy the information they find here and share it with offline harriers and harriettes. To that end we've made the informational pages on this site easy to print, with a minimum of graphics.
Is the HMC protected by copyright?
Some HMC articles and graphics are copyrighted. You're welcome to reprint those articles to share with other hashers. If you want to use any of our copyrighted articles or graphics on your own Web page, we ask that you include a link to the HMC. If you want to use our copyrighted articles or graphics in a print publication, we ask that you include the HMC's URL. As far as general hashing information - the calendar of events, HHH contacts, etc - we believe in "copyleft."
Copyleft? What's that?
Copyleft means hashing information belongs to hashers, and no one has a right to control it, monopolize it, or play "I've got a secret" with it. The HMC exists to help hashers find information on hashing, and anything you can do to help us spread this information throughout the international hashing community is all to the good.
Will the HMC ever be a pay or members-only site?
No. Never. Non. Nein. Nyet. Absolutely not. Sit on the ice and drink it down for even thinking such a thought!
Who founded the HMC, and how long has it been around?
Flying Booger launched the HMC in August 1995. That makes us over ten years old - practically prehistoric in Internet years - and we plan to stick around until the keg floats.
Some of the information I found here is out of date. How can I update it?
You can send us a reader submission form - just fill out the information and hit "send."If you want to update something else, click here to send the editors a private message. Click here if you want to post your suggestion or correction to the Half-Mind Forum where everyone can see it.
- Hash Contacts: click here
- Shopping Mall: click here
- Cookbook: click here
Can I contribute to the HMC?
We love getting stuff from hashers. Articles, rants, songs, hashing how-to's and history, love letters or hate mail - click here to send us your contribution. If you want to share your comments with everyone, click here to post to the Half-Mind Forum.
Do you censor contributions to the HMC?
Well, sure. We aren't going to print stuff that'll hurt hashers or hashing, and we won't help lawyers, ex-spouses, repo men, or the law track down our fellow hashers. We aren't going to repeat gossip. We're not interested in urban legends or chain letters. We aren't going to post spam. And if you send in something we really like but you can't spell for shit, we'll edit your stuff. Fair enough?
If I contribute something to the HMC, or agree to be listed as a contact or event organizer, how do I know my e-mail address won't fall into the hands of spammers?
We use a Javascript thingie that is designed to prevent spammers from using robots to harvest e-mail addresses from this site (we don't know what it is or how it works, but Likk'mm is a certified geek and he designed it for us). Regular hashers who read this site, however, can see your address and communicate with you. We figure if there's a hasher somewhere who wants to stalk you or kill you, that's between you and her, girl!
Do you sell anything?
The HMC does not sell anything. As a free service to hashers and hash vendors, we do provide a hash shopping mall.
Do you get paid for doing the HMC?
Not a cent. Our work is donated, and the expense of operating this site comes out of our pockets.
Can I contribute financially?
We thought you'd never ask.
What would you spend the money on?
Beer! Oh, and if there were any change left over, we'd use it to pay for things like Web hosting, software upgrades, and domain name renewal.
You're so hot. Wanna mess around?
Any time, baby . . . any time.