Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Just as it was then, Massacre HQ is still the Sinclairs' sixties-era rambler just north of
Pasadena. It's a rainy, misty day in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains when Jim
and his wife, Sue, invite me inside to what I can immediately see is a grandparents' house
straight out of central casting: public radio classical music playing quietly somewhere,
shelves lined with Garrison Keillor and Agatha Christie hardcovers, grandkid photos on
everyflatsurface.TheonlydifferenceisJim'shomeoffice,whichhasmetastasizedtocov-
er the whole living room. The pool table is now piled deep with boxes, envelopes, and
stacks of reference topics. “We have paper boxes for end tables now,” sighs Sue, who sits
across from us on the plaid sofa, near her quilting basket.
“I liken the Massacre to skiing, in that when somebody tries it, they'll either get it right
away and like it, or they'll say, 'What's this for?'” says Jim. He's a serious, professorial-
looking man in his late sixties with white whiskers and a deep, gruff voice. “I've given up
feeling thatanybodywouldlikeit,because Iknowthatmostpeopledon'thavethatkindof
mind.”
I know that Jim means that
not just anybody
can get into his contests, but you could be
forgivenforwonderingifhemeantthat
not anybody
iscapableofunderstandingthem.See,
map rallying is a strange and byzantine pursuit, even harder to describe than it is to mas-
ter. As a kid, I would see regular ads for the Massacre in
Games
magazine, and I imagined
the event as a freewheeling scavenger hunt through the atlas—exactly the kind of thing I
would have loved at that age, though I never actually signed up. The reality of the event, I
see as Jim and I peruse last year's contest booklet, is very different.
Here's a sample step from the third of the rally's eight legs, this one between Paris,
Ontario, and Eden Park, Ohio:
number comprises two digits and that is upon a limited-access highway in the
direction that's toward nearest other unnumbered interchange.
If you can parse and negotiate that instruction correctly, you must then answer a
multiple-choice question about your chosen route:
Q27.
Which among these do you see first?
a. Bowling Green
b. Ohio Tpk.
c. Pemberville
d. Scotch Ridge
Questions like these are the equivalent of the manned checkpoints at a real road rally:
they test whether or not you've followed the course successfully. Jim and his collaborators
