Rice University Students Look for Snickleberry Juice Recipe

by Liz Johnson

Dungadoozoo, gofal, kerbelblexdoo, senterbenter and cachezak are the five potent ingredients for a special soft drink. But it is doubtful that the makers of Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper will vie for this secret recipe.

This mixture creates Snickleberry Juice, the beverage of choice for residents in Tundaloo, a fictional town that lies in the domain of Dr. Seussdom. During a violent thunderstorm, lightning struck the vat of Snickleberry Juice, destroying the town's supply.

Thus the task was left to a group of Rice University students to solve a series of puzzles and riddles to rediscover the list of confidential components.

Rice University students participating in a scavenger hunt sort through various clues searching for a puzzle answer during the second-annual Hunt. From left, Rice students Chad Carson, Mitra Miller, ThisWeek writer Liz Johnson, Ann Zitterkopf and Chris Logan work on a puzzle at the Wyndham Warwick.

For the second year, students at Rice have participated in "The Hunt," a scavenger hunt sponsored by the Gulf Coast chapter of Mensa. In The Hunt, 130 students tackled an auditory puzzle, a cryptogram, a word-find puzzle called a rebus and several math word puzzles. The answer to each puzzle created the five ingredients needed to formulate Snickleberry Juice.

Four Rice students worked several months to write the puzzles, which are patterned in a Dr. Seuss fashion. The hunt was inspired by the Miami Herald's "Tropic Hunt" from a few years ago.

The four students analyzed existing puzzles and discovered a pattern, which they decided to change, said coordinator Mark Engelberg.

"It's people trying to think of ways to twist existing puzzles," Engelberg said. "The rebus search is a totally new kind of puzzle. We think we invented it; we took a word puzzle and used pictures."

On the rebus search, cartoon drawings were lined on a grid. The player would add the pictures together and subtract certain letters as the grid instructions indicated. Words could be formed horizontally or vertically.

The results of that puzzle helped players solve another puzzle, which yielded one of the ingredients.

The five-member team titled "Kitten up a Tree" won the hunt. After completing the five puzzles, all players participated in a speed-oriented math crossword puzzle. The answer to that puzzle provided a phone number, and the first three teams to call that number won The Hunt.

The winning team-made up of Chris Higgin, Lindsay Fairhurst, Darren Dunham, Byron Dorsey and Paul Phillips-nearly quit a couple of times, but pushed on, said Dunham. The team was still searching for one of the five answers at five minutes until the clues were closed, he said.

"Everybody did a job," Dunham said. "We heard of groups who finished in three or four hours. We almost gave up several times."

As winners, the team members split $175 in prize money.

As with traditional scavenger hunts, the clues led participants to different locations including the Galleria, the Wyndham Warwick Hotel, a Randall's grocery store and the Fondren library on the Rice campus.

Chad Carson, a sophomore, said working on the puzzles at the Wyndham Warwick was the hardest task. His six-member team had to venture back to the hotel a second time to figure which of the eight possible words was the actual ingredient.

At the hotel, a fake fortune teller gave the team hints toward gaining entrance into a room that contained a laser light. The light was manipulated by a mirror to reflect on the clue words. However, because the team didn't understand the fortune teller's clue, the team did not initially decipher the laser puzzle, Carson said.

"Going back to the fortune teller over and over was frustrating," she said. "We couldn't figure out which word was the right one."

At the Galleria, Chris Logan, a freshman, had to perform several silly tricks in order to receive clues from shopkeepers. At the Gap kids, she had to ask to try on a pair of socks using only sign language.

Logan tries to explain without speaking that she wants to try on a pair of socks at the Galleria Gap Kids.

Tension levels were high for her team as the members tried to figure out the cryptogram and rebus, she said.

"I got really, really frustrated," she said. "We were at the Galleria and no one had figured out any of the puzzles. I was ready to pull out my hair."

However, the team members solved each of the clues and correctly answered the numbered crossword puzzle. But they didn't dial fast enough to place in the top three.

"I was warned that I would be miserable and wouldn't enjoy it because last year's was really hard," Logan said. "But it was fun, even though we didn't win."