In 1994, I came to Tucson, Arizona from Columbus, Ohio to attend college at the University of Arizona. I was majoring in Journalism and minoring in computer science at the time. My freshman year was full of everything it should be, of new experiences and faces and sensations. I was alive with ignorant bliss found only in the eyes of a freshman. I lived life. On May 1st, 1995, I ran across the first Mayday page - in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student-run campus newspaper. The cryptic mix of languages, symbols, and mathematics intrigued me, but I chalked it up to an obscure campus organization, or some fraternity. Or drugs - I was, after all, a freshman. One year later, on May 1st, 1996, I saw my second Mayday page. I knew something was up, but I did no research. A year after that, in 1997, I saw the third Mayday page. By then I had gone to work for the Arizona Daily Wildcat - as their webmaster - and I had new resources available to me. I had back issues, and the Internet. I entered the Game. After a two-week frenzy of digging through dusty back issues, hunting down obscure sources, chasing leads, and rejoicing in the sheer mystery of what I had found, I assessed the situation: I had discovered a very local, very obscure mystery with roots reaching back into the 1970's

Someone, somewhere, is spending a decent amount of money to propagate a complex logic puzzle

to propagate a complex logic puzzle The complexity of the puzzles was mindboggling, encompassing cryptic historical references, symbology, languages and mathematical calculations. Someone is spending a great deal of time and brainpower to construct these mysteries

Lastly, much to my delight, the Game is still afoot. The Mayday Pages continue! I have unraveled the Mayday pages as far as I can, and I am far from the goal. I need help. I need your help. UPDATE: 2.1.99 Myself and a few others have been contacted by the people(?) behind the pages. Their emails make a few things very clear, so in the name of not pissing them off any further than I already have, I make a few clarifications :) They say it is not a game They say it has some sort of 'cause' They say it is not necessarily Tucson-centric They say we're getting there, but pointed out some large errors and missing portions, clarified a few wrong assumptions And, yeah, I spelled 'Lamas' wrong in about nine million different places. Sheesh.... I told you it was weird...