Irrelevant Background:
At my job we play Secret Santa with a vengeance. In SS all staff members draw from a pool of each other’s names. Then the idea is to give small gifts to the chosen givee without getting caught. The second (and most important) part of the game is to leave cryptic clues and puzzling hints to otherwise taunt the givee and others who are trying to figure out all the connections. Our ultimate SS winner is the staff member who figures out the most “who is giving to whom” connections by the time of the party. I must admit to being pretty darn good at this game.
To be completely open and fair, I always provide a list telling co-workers the names I did not draw–leaving out only the name I did. This year’s list is below.** So I ask you, which co-worker’s name did I draw for SS in 2001?**
Names I did not draw:
- The person who is worth 2/3 of 5 cents.
- The crazy Anglo.
- The person who is reputed to be on first.
- The person whose name is shared, for better or worse, by a character whose brother’s best friend is a certain Weed.
- The person whose name, if you add an “a” to, gives you some produce.
- The person whose name backwards is a type of water.
- The person whose name, if you replace one vowel with an “I”, gives you a synonym for “heart”.
- That jolly person who always returns every year at the end of Christmas.
- The person whose first letter may be moved to another position in his/her name to become a type of string.
- The person whose name becomes a type of produce if the letters “ED” replace a vowel in that name.
- The person whose name describes what a woman’s electric blanket is meant to do.
- The person who brings hell to mice.
- The person who, I hear, is a path to the Underworld.
- The person whose name might describe certain ticks found in the DC area.
- The person whose name backwards means “top-of-the-line citrus”.
- The person who would only have his/her head left if he/she became an organ donor.
- The person who, if one of their name’s letters was 5 back in the alphabet, would be a Christmas decoration.
- The person found in a room at the Wal-Mart.
- The person who, if the letters “LUE” were inserted into their name would give you a place to get high in Virginia.
- The person who is 2 indefinate articles.
- Bluebird’s Boy?
- The person associated with a complex issue.
- The person who is a type of holiday incense.
- The person who, if you exchange the positions of their first consonant and another consonant, will give you a word meaning “cure”.
- The person whose name will give you “something even” if you remove a consonant.
- The person whose name could score 98 points if it was the first word put down in a game of Scrabble (assuming proper names were allowed but all other rules remained the same).
- The person who could be “R”…(you know!)
- The infamous hermit “ED”.
- The person who could stand to be fed more.
Which leaves the 30th name. This is the one I chose. Who is it?
Names:
Ananda, April, Bridge, Bruno, Emilia, Frank, Freedom, Heather, Helaine, Hugh, Jason, Jessica, Katie, Leah, Logan, Matthew, Meredith, Michelle, Molly, Morgan, Nick, Pat, Polly, Richard, Ryan, Sam, Susie, Tom, Tricia, Tucker