University of Chicago students wrap up scavenger hunt

The list of 269 items is outrageous and seemingly impossible.

But dozens of students from the University of Chicago returned Sunday from their four-day multistate trek dubbed "the world's largest scavenger hunt" having attempted just that.

The list for the 2008 competition included a "car horn that plays 'La Cucaracha," having "a Nobel Prize winner or 'Weird Al' Yankovic witness your organ donor registration" and trying to get "(Barack) Obama's haircut at Obama's barbershop."

In the competition teams get points for the items they bring back to campus, tasks they complete or questions they answer correctly. The scavenger hunt, in its 22nd year, includes a road trip of up to 1,000 miles from Chicago.

"At the University of Chicago, we work very hard," senior David Pisano, 21, said in a story posted Sunday on the Chicago Tribune's Web site. "There's a lot of brain power going into academic problems. This allows us to take another kind of brain power and put it into frivolous, trivial but completely enjoyable tasks."

The list is laced with encrypted clues, riddles and the bizarre. This year's challenges included "have a potato break the sound barrier" and finding "a disgruntled beekeeper."

According to the lengthy list of rules, "All items on the list can be obtained and performed legally. It may involve smooth talking, or it may involve something else, but it is all possible. The Judges take no responsibility over your getting thrown into the clink, be it local clink, state clink, federal clink, or Colonel Klink. If you end up there, it is your fault."

Some participants headed to Las Vegas in search of "D'' list celebrities to photograph, while others contemplated weaving a basket underwater, building a working light bulb from scratch or locating or constructing a bust of Abraham Lincoln made out of pennies.

In 2000, the list called for a live elephant, which students were able to procure for judging.

According to a university news release, "Chicago students often say that the most important prize for the winning team is fame and glory."