{mystery}

The Game seems to revolve around May 1st, commonly known as May Day.

The solution to solving the puzzle lies within unraveling a series of complex, detailed, and interwoven pages that are printed every May 1st in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student run newspaper on the University of Arizona Campus.

In addition, there are occasional 'corrective' pages (well, I call them that, others disagree) that run on seemingly random and unconnected dates that 'update' the state of the game. Such ads are usually short, just as cryptic, and seek to modify part of an existing Mayday page to reflect necessary changes to the game. I.e. One such page makes a reference to a road or path that is unpassable, and gives alternative coordinates with an apologetic tone.

Every single page will mention several clues, key words, and dates, as well as other dates and page numbers of related Mayday Pages that can be found in the back issues of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. The pages seem to be interwoven with one another.

I have done extensive searched to dig up as many of the May Day pages as I can, and I have analyzed them extensively. I've hit a wall. I don't know all the obscure languages and symbols.

Here is what I know:

  • Someone is doing their historical homework: There is a wealth of obscure historical infomation here. Ranging from references to historical figures, religious and otherwise, to items and occurrences, there is a historical relevance to solving the Game.
  • Someone is doing their mathematical homework: Once again, more strange symbols and whatnot. Ranging from physics to chemistry to binary encodings, the clues come in every shape and form. The Game's author seems to have a fascination with informational encoding systems and the like...
  • Someone has extra money to burn on this puzzle: Full page ads in the Arizona Daily Wildcat aren't cheap, and the pages have been running for over 10 years. This leads me to believe they (the author(s))are older in age, or an established professional.
  • The game's author is familiar with the Tucson area, and the University of Arizona campus: Like I said, it's a semi-local game, but you can't tell that until you really get into the clues.
  • There seems to be a reward, or an endpoint: There are references to a safe deposit box located in a bank in the downtown Tucson area. See this page for an example. I'm not promising anything, as I have not yet unraveled the mystery. It could be a red herring, in which case I'll kick the author in the (censored) when I meet them.
All of this suggests a deliberate, organized effort to carefully construct a puzzle leading that leads to some eventual enpoint. I can guarantee you, the Mayday pages are not the work of a mentally-challenged individual and or/f*cking lunatic.

UPDATE: I take the above statement back. They could be completely loony freaks, but as of 1/15/99, I believe they are at least interesting loony freaks, and worthy of some sort of attention, whatever their intentions.

They're too systematic, they're too detailed. And, like I said, they're expensive.

That's what I know...

The Webmaster's promises:

  • All the information I get, I'll post, as soon as possible.

  • I'll try to do things as fast as my school/work schedule will permit.

  • If there is a money reward to this thing, I'll figure out some way of using it without pissing everyone off. I could split it out between the people who helped me the most. I could give it to a charity. Better yet, we could take it and continue the game on a larger scale. Who knows. We'll deal with it when we get there.

  • To the Mayday Mystery Author: You have a lot of explaining to do.

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