# Bad Time to Be an American Hasher **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738 "2001-10-16T15:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/1 "2001-10-16T15:39:04Z")
Some of you may be aware that I (and also **Spiny Norman** , and **Floater** , and a few other Dopers) engage in a pastime called [hashing](http://www.gthhh.com/). It’s a running game. Simply put, a trail is marked by a “hare” which is then followed by a pack of “hounds.” There’s beer at the end. Now, the trail, which is usually three miles or so, is marked by bits of flour. White flour, which apparently to the untrained eye looks like anthrax. See the problem? There are hash groups all over the United States, and more and more we’re hearing about the cops being called on them. I want to get irritated by it, but I guess under the circumstances it’s understandable. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/2 "2001-10-16T15:55:42Z")
Well, I would recommend that you try a different marker like colored sand, but when people are calling the cops on suspicious lumps of guacamole, that probably won’t help. Shaving cream? Mustard? ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/3 "2001-10-16T16:09:25Z")
Be a real man. Mark your trail with urine. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/4 "2001-10-16T17:19:07Z")
The problem with that, **beagledave** , is that hashers are not actual hounds, and so don’t have the sense of smell necessary to follow a urine trail. Besides which, I’ve never met the hare who was willing to go running through the briars and the brambles of the Georgia woods with his pecker hanging out. Not that I’ve asked, mind you… ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/5 "2001-10-16T17:45:30Z")
I just got a message that the Norwegian embassy in Helsinki had closed down this morning because someone had spread a white powder in the neighbourhood. The Embassy Sectretary wasn’t too worried, though. He commented that it was probably someone that had marked a marathon trail (and there is a hash today). BTW The hare at last Saturday’s run here in Stockholm used a homemade flourbag with a scull and two crossed bones together with the caption **Anthrax**. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/6 "2001-10-16T17:58:22Z")
I just found out the run was even labelled … > [@](#): > > [A fun Nordic evening…](http://www.sci.fi/~outi/) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/7 "2001-10-16T18:40:05Z")
**Floater** > [@](#): > > BTW The hare at last Saturday’s run here in Stockholm used a homemade flourbag with a scull and two crossed bones together with the caption **Anthrax**. Oh yeah. THAT’s the way to stem the panic… I’m thinking I may lay my next trail with cornmeal. It has all the advantages of flour, but it’s yellow instead of white. **Zyada** , sand is extremely heavy. The hare has to carry his trail-marking stuff with him, and often lays trails “live,” which means he has only a five-minute headstart on the pack and speed is important. Sand wouldn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/8 "2001-10-16T19:02:51Z")
Silly string? ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/9 "2001-10-16T19:28:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Floater \* > \*\*BTW The hare at last Saturday’s run here in Stockholm used a homemade flourbag with a scull and two crossed bones together with the caption **Anthrax**. \*\* 1st thought: Not even hashers are **that** dumb. 2nd thought: What a stupid 1st thought. Of course they are. Trail markings are supposed to be biodegradable and self-erasing, so flour used to be the perfect for setting trail, except when there’s snow - cocoa is good for that, btw. Paper was used by the very first hashers deep in Malaysia’s jungles, but having white termites to clean up is a luxury not shared by all. Magic String would work, but it is a bit - messy, somehow. I like the idea of shaving foam, although the cans carry a sort of graffiti image. But it is problematic - having law enforcement coming after us wasn’t unknown before, and it’ll probably become worse before it gets better. I mean, marking the trail with flour making the word “Hash” is probably not that much of an improvement 🙂 Floater: Excellent sig. I love that comic. S. Norman ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/10 "2001-10-16T23:11:49Z")
Just out of curiosity, **Spiny Norman** , is your SDMB name related in any way to your hash name? Magic string, shaving cream, mustard: the problem with all of these is probably that they’re too expensive. For a 4-5 mile trail I typically use ten to fifteen pounds (4.5 to 7 kg) of flour. Flour is ridiculously cheap, so this is not a problem. A similar quantity of those other items would be much more expensive. Here in Atlanta we do also use plain white toilet paper, because our trails are very woodsy and flour on the ground would be hard to see in underbrush. I suppose throwing squares on the ground even in open terrain would work, as long as it didn’t get blown away. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/11 "2001-10-17T01:27:45Z")
Spray paint? Florescent yellow arrows would be a subtle clue…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/12 "2001-10-17T09:34:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > **Just out of curiosity, Spiny Norman, is your SDMB name related in any way to your hash name?** Nope, I’m known in those exalted circles as “Last Boy Scout” - boring handle, I know. I share your worry about spending good beer money on trail markings. Hm. Wood chips, sawdust ? A bit harder to get by, but still cheap enough and probably not too anthrax-like. Hey, that might even work. S. Norman ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/13 "2001-10-17T09:37:45Z")
On On ---
**Author:** ![Damhna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Damhna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damhna)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/14 "2001-10-17T10:07:00Z")
Damn but i’ve been sheltered. All thoose orienteering weekends seem so wasted now. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/15 "2001-10-17T10:17:26Z")
Are these trails supposed to be ridiculously obvious? If so, what’s the point? Seems like you could just predetermine a spot to go drink beer and taking off running towards it. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/16 "2001-10-17T10:28:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*Are these trails supposed to be ridiculously obvious? If so, what’s the point? Seems like you could just predetermine a spot to go drink beer and taking off running towards it. \*\* The object is to get the trails as unobvious as possible, or put it this way: if a hash trail goes someplace where a normal jogger would run it’s purely by coincidense. ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/17 "2001-10-17T13:04:05Z")
I almost made this a **GQ** , but figured that most of ur regular hashers are here now. I normally use flour to mark my trails, but in light of the current white-powder scare I’d like to use something else. I’ve been looking through the obvious alternatives listed above: Shaving cream is too expensive. (and will it last if I set the trail the night before?) Chalk only works in town. Toilet paper wold blow away (and it’s not a pretty sight either…) Then I wandered upon the website of the [Montreal HHH](http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1133/wtf/), where they mention **grated carrots**. Sounds like a cheap, albeit messy option. Has anyone tried it? How much would one need? (compared to flour) How well does it stay? (does it get eaten by slugs in five meinutes, or will it still be there the next day?) on on ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/18 "2001-10-17T14:38:23Z")
I just got the following forwarded email this morning, a dispatch from the “Hashers are too that dumb” department. I don’t know the source and can’t verify it yet on the Web (not surprising; it’s a pretty fresh story), but it seems plausible: > [@](#): > > Charges filed against Mississippi men following anthrax scare > > Tue Oct 16 2001 15:49:33 ET > > Federal charges have been filed against two Mississippi men whose actions and alleged comments about anthrax caused a ‘near panic’ in downtown Oxford, it has been reported. > > Peter Womer, 26, a student at the University of Mississippi, and Stacy Givhan, 29, both of Oxford, face an Oct. 26 hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander on charges they threatened the use of a biological toxin. > > Womer and Givhan were arrested Friday by Oxford police, several hours after they were seen setting out small piles of a white powder around Oxford’s downtown Square. > > The men were preparing to participate in a ‘hashing’ event, in which dots of flour are used to mark a trail for runners. Oxford has had a regular hashing group for about 10 years. > > The men are facing criminal prosecution because of apparently tongue-in-cheek comments that sent local law enforcement officers scrambling to protect the public. > > According to the FBI report, after placing the powder on the streets, one of the men told a citizen the substance was anthrax. > > Tests conducted in Jackson confirmed the substance was not anthrax. > > At one point, the state Department of Environmental Services ‘recommended closing the entire downtown business district’ because of the threat, according to the report. > > Developing… > > END Idiots. Here in Atlanta the word on the street is we’ll be switching to mainly chalk and toilet paper. That’ll probably do nicely. I can mark most of a trail with only one or two rolls of toilet paper, and a proper trail (by which I mean, six miles of briars and creeks) is better-marked by TP than by flour. **Cisco** , part of the point is that you don’t know where the trail is going, and the hares try to trick and mislead the pack; that’s part of the fun. It’s no good if you know where you’re going to go. [hijack]And frankly, this is why I don’t understand why most European hashers run A to A trails, which end at the same place they start. What’s the point? In Atlanta the trails are almost always A to B, so we truly don’t know where we’re going and our fate is entirely in the hare’s hands.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/19 "2001-10-17T14:47:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*Seems like you could just predetermine a spot to go drink beer and taking off running towards it. \*\* You could save a lot of time and energy by just driving there. No anthrax scares, either. Yesterday there was a report of a white powder on the floor of a local laundrymat. To nobody’s surprise it tested out to be detergent. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-time-to-be-an-american-hasher/87738/20 "2001-10-17T14:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiver \* > \*\*[hijack]And frankly, this is why I don’t understand why most European hashers run A to A trails, which end at the same place they start. What’s the point? In Atlanta the trails are almost always A to B, so we truly don’t know where we’re going and our fate is entirely in the hare’s hands.[/hijack] \*\* No problems really, I’ve mostly done A2A hashes, and I’ve never seen it as a problem. If you’re in an unfamiliar neighbourhood you’ll have no idea where you are anyway, and if the trail is A2B and you know the lay of the land you’ll have a pretty good idea of where you’re going to end. I remember a visiting hasher from USA (he might even be from Atlanta), who disliked A2B runs very much, mostly for logistic reasons: When you’re through with the run you shouldn’t have to stand around for a long time waiting for your luggage to be shipped from point A.