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Las Vegas RDR Thursday, 22 September 2011 11:16 |  Written by Sean Gilmour |
On Halloween weekend, once again the Las Vegas hashing community
will host their eighth annual Red Dress Run. “We want hashers to make the Las Vegas Red Dress Run synonymous with Halloween so they can plan for it each year. Halloween presents all sorts of fun options,” says Adios Motherf*cker, one of this year’s organizers. Last year the unique challenge of leading a pub crawl for this many hashers was overcome by instead hosting a Halloween costume ball. “Our first ever costume ball was a huge success, the fun-spirited creativity of the half-mind was given not one, but two opportunities to express themselves having to concoct not just red dress garb, but a Halloween costume as well,” Adios adds. Just as last year, prizes will be given away for the best group, scariest, sexiest, and most original costumes.
The Las Vegas Red Dress Run has been growing exponentially since 2003, attendance nearly doubled in 2009 with 220 hashers, and 2010 blew that number out of the water with 340 hashers registered. This year there’s yet another expected rise in attendees, but the event’s organizers plan to limit attendance to 500 in order to maintain the integrity of the event. “I want everyone to feel as if they’re hanging out with their friends at a hash, not attending a commercial event,” says Adios.
The Las Vegas Red Dress Run is hosted in historic downtown Las Vegas in the Fremont St. area, home to ten legendary casinos, and Viva Vision, perhaps the largest video screen in the world. “This area offers so much more character and history for the hares to share with the pack,” says Adios, “leading hundreds of hounds down the strip wouldn’t allow us to offer the experience we can downtown.” The hash hotel is the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, winner of the AAA Four-Diamond Award since 1977. The Nugget has one of the most amazing pools in Vegas touting a water slide that shoots swimmers through a live shark aquarium. Many hashers enjoy this amazing poolside atmosphere in the hours before the Red Dress Run. A group rate with the hotel will be offered until September 30th.
Proceeds from the Las Vegas Red Dress run are donated to Safe Nest, a local charity operating the only 24-hour emergency shelters in the city for the safety of battered women and children. Safe Nest was established in 1977, and is the oldest and largest domestic violence program in Southern Nevada, offering not only shelter but counseling as well.
Registration for the Las Vegas Red Dress run starts August 1 and runs until October 25. An excited Adios urges hashers, “if you thought last year was awesome, come checkout what we have planned for this year; two nights of live entertainment, a mechanical bull, and Halloween weekend in Vegas, you just can’t beat it.” Information and registration can be found under the events tab on the LVH3’s website http://lasvegashhh.com, on HashSpace, and on the Sin City H3’s Facebook. -Sean Gilmour
Around the World InterHash in 2014 (Belgian) BeersThursday, 22 September 2011 11:13 | Written by HHHiggins |
What’s on a Chairman’s (half-)mind
Coming with the idea of bidding for the World InterHash [WIH] is a one-man job. From there on consider three major steps: (1) convince half-a-dozen die-hard hashers who like challenges to join your bid committee early, (2) convince the hash community you’ve got what it takes to provide a successful mega H3 weekend, (3) convince enough volunteers for helping out before and during the event. Having your team ready and stable helps proving your preparedness and win the vote.
What’s Your Favourite Colour?
The three questions I was asked the most when I started this project were:
* Are you serious? It’s a joke, right?
* What’s in it for you?
* Do you think Brussels is the right place to organise it?
So we adopted “Think about it ... Seriously!” as our motto and produced ambassador shirts. That answered question #1.
Having hashed extensively for 20 years, visiting 72 countries and 250 kennels, neither having a big ego nor a tendency to line up my pockets with hasher’s money answering question #2 was more tricky. Being a project manager by day I reckon I saw this as a challenge and a good way to focus my expertise while having - for once - full control and accountability on the entire project including the selection of team members. But still the first reason must have been the pride to help visitors discovering my home country, an unassuming place with plenty to offer (read the flyer).
Question #3 was actually the first I answered before being asked by conducting a feasibility study in summer 2006 with the help of Brussels convention bureau. That was the very serious thinking bit, honest! We’re now busy refining the initial job by building up the event budget. In the meantime we have already selected the venue, bus company and - most importantly - the brewery (check our website).
Showing our true colours we first announced our intention to bid for WIH 2014 on stage back in Chiang Mai 2006. So don’t tell us you didn’t know ;-)
Sponsor, What Sponsor?
Since Cardiff 2004 I was (foolishly?) caressing the idea of killing for good all the recurring fake assumptions and bullshit around organising a WIH.
As Chairman I took the commitment from the very start to organise a WIH free of commercial interest and without interference from politically-correct sponsors. There are no rules on the hash and I certainly don’t want outsiders to force us r*nning our event the way they want to. BTW that also applies to Stray Dog’s phantom menace and his Global Trash “empire”.
Luckily enough European summer means off-season prices in most capital cities since businessmen are away playing. So discounts come easily for venue, hotels and even drinks (more beer for us!). In short: good value for money!
Knowing What We Want!
Another three major points we want to enforce are (1) minimising waste [don’t worry you can get wasted if you want], (2) capping promotional costs at 2% of the event budget and (3) reducing administration costs to the bare minimum via on-line self-service registration. Finally while the Red Dress Run will raise benefits for a charity of our choice any profit that would be “accidentally” generated by the Brussels 2014 event would be wisely reinvested in the H3 community, possibly in an after-party at the ... World InterHash 2016.
After all we strongly believe the Hash House Harriers should be a non-for-profit organisation. As seen on an old hash T-shirt: “We’re running for a cause ... cause we want to get pissed!”.
Back to the future
Fast forward to Anno Hashii 73 i.e. 2011 in the Roman Calendar. This year. The perfect opportunity to relay our message and garner support from the hashing community by attending all major regional events and beyond. With 250 local ambassadors world-wide from Russia to New-Zealand via Qatar and KL (random selection) it was a good start. Furthermore I decided I had enough of the corporate world for a while so took a sabbatical for the whole year having fun travelling around the world (twice) on my own dime while incidentally selling pledges for our event.
So there was much rejoicing with additional luggage in tow...
In March I also had the unique opportunity to visit Jogjakarta and the Java 2012 WIH sites with Discowanker as tour guide. A nice relaxing experience including a tasting of the beers locally available. But more on that in a separate article. Don’t forget to register and vote for us!
The other good surprise, while in Kuala Lumpur, was having lunch at the Selangor Club not only with survivors CheeBye and Drainoil but also Bill Panton - Mr Hash Genealogy himself.
Open Season!
The pledge season opened at Aussie Nash Hash back in February where the Tazzie hashers proved once again they’re second to none for organising big hash events!
The idea proved to be a good one as we have 1,080 pre-registered hashers as of August 31! What’s in it for you do I hear you say? The pledge is a deposit that guarantees you the cheapest opening price (only available to pledge holder obviously) with the balance only due early 2013.
To make it even more attractive we’re doing an automatic draw for every 100 pledges sold and a lucky winner is upgraded to a fully paid registration. And now for the icing on the cake: once the pledge season is over another automatic draw will select the very lucky winner for a free return flight (economy class equivalent) to Brussels WIH 2014, pending we win the bid. Now what about this for an incentive!
For the bean counters amongst us 80% of the pledge revenues will go into organising the event while the remaining 20% are used towards promotion material.
The Show Must Go On On
Did I forget to mention Brussels 2014 will take place regardless of the WIH vote result? So join the band wagon to the biggest European hash party of the decade! You might even want to invest wisely by buying a pledge (€25) while stock lasts at one of those forthcoming regional events:
* InterAmerica in Savannah, USA (Oct 7-10)
* Mekong IndoChina in Luang Prabang, Laos (Oct 14-16)
* South Asia IH in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka (Oct 28-30)
* Klang 30th Anniversary in Genting Highlands, Malaysia (Nov 4-6)
* PanAsia/PanIndo in Bandung, Indonesia (Nov 11-13)
That’s it folks!
What’s on a Chairman’s (half-)mind Hashing in AfricaThursday, 22 September 2011 11:02 | Written by Digit (Grand Master, Accra Hash House Harriers) |
Africa Hash is one of the major regional Hash events that take place on the odd years – Pan Asia, Eurohash and the Americas Interhash are the others – leaving the even years free for the World Interhash. Africa Hash was the brainchild of grizzly old Garfield back in 1996 when he was GM of the Addis Ababa Hash and called himself Moby Dick. Originally the event was intended to be annual, but after the Vic Falls edition in 1999 (which was also perpetrated by Garfield, who had migrated south with the wildebeests to become GM of the Harare Hash), it became bi-ennial.
This year the 10th Africa Hash was hosted by Addis Ababa Hash, the second time A2H3 has played host. The winning bid for Africa Hash 2013 was Accra Hash, from Ghana. This will mark the first time the event will be held in West Africa – all the previous affairs having taken place in eastern or southern Africa.
Africa Hash venues
1996: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2003: Mombasa, Kenya
1997: Machakos, Kenya 2005: Cape Town, South Africa
1998: Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania 2007: Maputo, Mozambique
1999: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe 2009: Kampala, Uganda
2001: Durban, South Africa 2011: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
So now that the eastern and southern African clubs have exhausted their supply of venues, it behoves us westerners to sort things out! One thing we decided before announcing the bid was to hold the event not in Accra, the capital of Ghana and where the airplanes land, but in Cape Coast, 150 km to the west.
You see, we wanted to hold the event at a place that had ample (and affordable) bed space, good running country and interesting surroundings. So we got in touch with Cape Coast University, which has a beautiful campus and hundreds of dormitory beds. Also, there are about 100 guest house cottages available on campus, all of which we will reserve for Hashers. And for those who want it, luxury hotels are abundant in Cape Coast. So accommodation will be available from $7 a night at university dormitories to $150+ for the high end. And when you mix in the jungle, beaches and forest trails with the oldest slave forts and castles in Africa, that’s about as good as it gets. Dates are 7–9 June 2013.
Getting to Ghana is simple because Accra is a regional hub. There are direct flights to Kotoka International Airport from London (BA and Virgin Atlantic), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Rome (Alitalia), Amsterdam (KLM), Paris (Air France) Atlanta and New York (Delta), Dubai (Emirates), South African (Joburg), Nairobi (Kenya Airways), Addis Ababa (Ethiopian) and several regional airlines from West African countries.
For further misinformation,
visit www.accrahash.com.
Have a squiz at the photos accompanying this drivel for an idea as to what to expect from Africa Hash 2013 at Cape Coast, Ghana!
On On!
Digit (Grand Master, Accra Hash House Harriers)
Africa Hash is one of the major regional Hash events that take place on the odd years – Pan Asia, Eurohash and the Americas Interhash are the others – leaving the even years free for the World Interhash. BanishmentThursday, 22 September 2011 10:44 | Written by Flying Booger |
Fair warning:
this post contains dirty hash laundry. Sensitive hashers should avert their eyes, plug their ears, and sing “la-la-la” until they get to the next post down.
Fair warning:this post contains dirty hash laundry. Sensitive hashers should avert their eyes, plug their ears, and sing “la-la-la” until they get to the next post down.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (and one crocodile)Friday, 27 May 2011 10:24 | Written by Bogdiver |
Phuket H3 members like to play pranks on each other, like the time when Sir Wanda forgot his trademark waistcoat full of hash patches in my car. He got it back three weeks later in the circle, frozen into the middle of a big block of ice. On another occasion Sybil broke twelve raw eggs over my head while singing the twelve days of Christmas. This I admit was in revenge for me spiking his bottle of Rose with two bottles of Tabasco.
Bangkok H3, although much older, is a far more modest affair with an average pack of around 30. It was founded around 200 BC and is men only, except for outstation runs. Looking at the pack today it is clear that a lot of the original pack are still (sort of) running, although walking sticks, rollators and wheelchairs have become standard issue. It is possibly one of the most conservative hashes in the world. As far as they are concerned Attila the Hun simply got a bit too far off paper when he showed up at the gates of Vienna in 443 AD. The hare was still given good run though.
I lived in Phuket for 20 years, joining PH3 in 1986 after run two or three, can’t remember and records were not properly kept in those early days. In 2003 I relocated to Bangkok and immediately joined BH3. Although running along smelly klongs and through garbage dumps does have its own charms, I did sort of miss the running terrain in Phuket, with its rubber and palm oil plantations, hills with stunning views and the rule that more than 100 meters of hardtop during a run is automatic hash shit. I thus volunteered to organize a joint run between PH3 and BH3.
The first joint run in 2005 went very well as an event. I chose the long labour weekend on the first of May so nobody had to work on Monday. This gave us a full two days of hashing with a run each on Saturday and Sunday.
The Saturday Joint run ended at a small secluded beach, shaded by large trees. Of course it was a challenging run which included lots of mangrove swamps. Only a disappointing eight hashers showed up from Bangkok against 140 Phuket hashers present.
Back in Bangkok I was told by those who attended that they did have a great weekend and that if it was done again definitely more Bangkok hashers would attend. So, Labour weekend 2006 found BH3 again in Phuket. How many do you think showed up? Right, eight. Phuket hashers seemed to enjoy it though as this time around 160 of them attended.
I laid the run from Bang Pe waterfall, one of the two large waterfalls in Ton Sai National Park. This mountain range is the last large unspoiled tropical rain forest in Phuket.
I had laid a run in the same area five years ago. At the time I told the pack that the mangrove swamps they were about to enter was the last location in Phuket where someone was bitten by a crocodile 15 years previously. I then put a stuffed two meter crocodile in there which I obtained from the Phuket zoo. The result was predictable mayhem.
Having been there and done that I did not want to repeat myself this time around as the entire Phuket hash was aware of the earlier crocodile run.
I went back to the zoo and asked for a live croc this time around, together with two handlers. After all, it was not the sort of thing you just pick up with the message “I’ll bring it back tonight”.
The zoo thought I had to be joking but a sufficient quantity of crispy new notes quickly convinced them otherwise. Although I had not asked my co-hare Philty Phil to share the expense he pulled out half the cost saying he wanted bragging rights on this one as well. On to the croc pen to make our choice. Our first choice was considered too large and heavy (about 4 meters) to be handled and carried safely. Our second choice was deemed by the zoo to be right at the limit but acceptable. They lassoed it, tied its mouth shut and blindfolded it to keep it calm.
Off we were to the mangroves with a 70kg 2.5 meter very agitated croc in the back of the truck. Once there we carried it 150 meters into the mangroves, onto a small mud patch right next to the trail and just past a curve so the runners wouldn’t see it until they were almost on top of it. There we tied it with its hind legs to a tree so it couldn’t lurch forward. (we hoped) and then removed the blindfold and mouth strap. Just before the runners came around the corner I threw the animal some large chunks of meat and went into hiding with my camera ready, Philty Phil and my 15 year old son Peter by my side. Peter looked at the crocodile, looked at us and said: “You guys are stark raving mad!”.
When the pack arrived the effect was great. Runners shouting and screaming CROCODILE, CROCODILE and taking off in every which direction. And me, I was laughing hysterically.
After the pack had passed we told the handlers to take the croc back to the zoo and made for the laager. There we found a number of shaking hashers talking about how they had only just survived an attack by a wild crocodile and how only their courage, speed, agility and the camouflage of their brown pants had enabled them to make it back safely.
I don’t remember much of the circle but was told that I had about 157 down downs, most of them while sitting on ice and no doubt all of them well deserved.
On On,
Sir Bogdiver
 Phuket H3 members like to play pranks on each other, like the time when Sir Wanda forgot his trademark waistcoat full of hash patches in my car. He got it back three weeks later in the circle, frozen into the middle of a big block of ice. On another occasion Sybil broke twelve raw eggs over my head while singing the twelve days of Christmas. This I admit was in revenge for me spiking his bottle of Rose with two bottles of Tabasco.
Hashing with the Rhode Island Red CocksFriday, 27 May 2011 10:09 | Written by by Dr. W.H.O. |
May, 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Rhode Island Hash House Harriers. This may not be earth shaking news to the rest of the world, but for a small group of aging hashers who find themselves stranded by circumstance in the smallest state in the US, the milestone of the 1300th run is fairly exciting. Of course, we’re not about to do anything special to celebrate this. The hare on the Monday closest to our founding day would have to pay for extra beer. Good beer is expensive. The guy that makes our T-shirts is lazy, and has lost his silk-screening equipment somewhere. And no one knew this was coming until in April, one of us figured out that 52 times 25 equals 1300. We were on Run #1302. (I needed help with the math, too. Don’t feel bad.) The RIH3 prides itself on lack of management.
Rhode Island is located on the northeast coast of the United States. It is not an island. It has several islands, though. It is 37 miles wide, and 48 miles in length. This makes it frequently used as a unit of measurement for Texas ranches, icebergs, suburbs of Los Angeles, etc. The Rhode Island Hash House Harriers was founded by a “Sparks”, a bewildered Norwegian from the Sydney H3, relocated to Rhode Island by his employer. Sparks was fond of good beer. (Good beer is expensive.) So he decided to defray part of the cost of having good beer by starting a hash. With the help of some Boston hashers (who hoped to keep Sparks occupied, out of Massachusetts, and away from their not-so-good beer), he set the inaugural run of the RIH3 on May 5, 1986.
Within a few months, others began to join in and the pattern of a small, rural hash was formed. Trails are pre-laid, and flour is the marking of choice. Pavement is frowned upon; trails are in the woods unless there’s a good excuse. Good beer is demanded. (Good beer is expensive.) Runs start at 18:30 on the nose on Mondays, rain or shine, light or dark. Hares are assigned dates for their hashes with virtually no consideration of their convenience. And the hare is responsible for providing the beer at the beer check and the circle. Thus, every regular is expected to take a turn at haring and buying the beer.
Our hash became popular in the 1990s, with 20-30 hashers showing up frequently. This was not good. Numbers like this get pretty conspicuous. Trailheads in the woods usually have limited parking. Running in most parks or state wooded areas is illegal after dusk in RI. That includes seven months of the year. Arrests occur. Restaurants don’t like unexpected groups of 20 that show up just as the kitchen is closing. (And hashers have trouble planning ahead.) And with a pack of 20 or more, at least three cases of beer will be needed. (Good beer is expensive.) Most RI hashers are barely-employable as it is. Clearly, the RIH3 had to take certain measures to avoid becoming too big.
First, the hares decided to take full advantage of local shiggy. Rhode Island is known as the Ocean State, with over 400 miles of coastline. About 40% of that coastline includes salt-marshes. There are no fewer than three cedar swamps specifically named “Great Swamp”. The state is geographically blessed with ample amounts of poison ivy, poison oak AND poison sumac. Easy enough to avoid while cautiously setting a trail; hard to notice when running in the dark. But it certainly gets noticed, come late Tuesday. In addition, our woods are filled with yellow jackets, nesting in the ground underfoot. The first one to step on a hive gets a freebie. The second gets stung once or twice. But the next few? Ha, ha! (Beer does help the sting to go away. But good beer is expensive.) Finally, the Southern New England green-briers are mean and evil plants with nasty, big, pointy thorns, and are frequently considered impassable. But that’s usually where the flour leads.
Bleeding, itchy rashes, shoe-loss in viscous sucking mud, and bee-sting anaphylaxis has proved insufficiently discouraging for the hardier souls. Getting arrested only seems to mean a free ride back to the cars. Some other discouragement was needed. So, singing started. Filthy and disgusting singing, of course. Singing at the beer check, singing on trail, singing in the circle, etc. have become part of an average RIH3 hash. The virgins and visitors in particular are forced to sing. This has in fact reduced our two-timers and return visitors substantially. We have also found that, after the food and beer are delivered to the hash table at the On-After restaurant, some classic hash ditties may get the group thrown out without paying. (After all, good beer is expensive.)
For a few years, in the late 90s and early 2000s, these strategies seemed to be working. There were as few as three or four showing up during some dark and stormy nights, blizzards, hurricanes, etc. There was plenty of good beer to go around on those nights, for certain! But lately, for unknown reasons, the numbers have been slowly climbing back. This winter, in 9 degree weather [editor’s gratuitous note, that’s degrees F], with 30 mph winds and two feet of fresh snow, we had 22 runners show up, in kilts, to celebrate Robbie Burns’ birthday in January. Even women have become regulars! I personally had to spend over $70 on beer the last time I hared. (Good beer is expensive.) Obviously, we’re going to have to get arrested more often.
So anyways, the RIH3 is thriving in a little hidden corner of New England. If any visiting hashers are in the area, we run every Monday at 18:30 sharp, and we welcome you. But you know, Boston is awfully close. New Haven, Hartford and even New York aren’t all that far away. Do you really want to get your legs all scratched up and bloodied? Do you really need your clothes all smelly when you’ll just have to pack them up in a few days? Do you feel like a night in jail? Can you afford our hash cash? (Currently, $1. But we usually forget to collect.) I’d think twice. And then maybe just catch a movie and a beer in Providence. They have some good beer there. (Good beer is expensive.) Just look in the guidebooks. On On.
LETTERS: A Right Royal Run and Post Party Piss UpFriday, 27 May 2011 09:55 | Written by The Horse’s Arse |
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