
Indiana Jones journal mystery solved - CesareBorgia
http://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/38161122385/mischief-managed-for-those-of-you-who-have
======
ghc
Seeing this resolution to the mystery made my day. It's refreshing to see that
all this buzz was the result of a glorious postal mishap, not a concerted
effort to hijack our attention with a viral marketing stunt.

~~~
mintplant
I was hoping for a new Alternate Reality Game, along the lines of I Love Bees
[1] or The Beast [2]. Advertising or not, some of this "viral marketing" can
produce large, immersive narratives.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Bees>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(game)>

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akdetrick
This article is missing an image of an old map with red lines connecting
Italy, Guam, Hawaii, and Chicago.

~~~
Osmium
How's this? <http://i.imgur.com/P5MxB.jpg> Courtesy of iPhoto (I appreciate
it's technically incorrect, but I think it captures the spirit)

~~~
dredmorbius
Pretty good, though:

\- Shortest route from Chicago to Rome would be west->east, not east->west.

\- 1930s air travel/mail delivery would likely have been by DC-3 (introduced
1935). Early models had a range of 1000 miles, later extended in the DC-3A to
2100 miles. Military C47 A/B aircraft had a 1600 mile range. So you'd have to
introduce a few more hops on the map.

\- A package would more likely have traveled via ground route, mostly ship. A
trans-Asiatic route would be highly unfeasible (or would make for another
Indian Jones movie: "Delivery of the Misrouted Journal").

Still, nice touch.

~~~
podperson
Actually it's pretty clear in the movies that most of the long distance air
travel is by some variant of flying boat (he's seen getting on and off an Pan
Am clipper), and the dotted lines in the map do not show refueling hops.

If you look at the history of Pan Am, it started out operating two flying
boats: Sikorsky S-38 and S-40. The S-40 had a range of 875 miles (but can land
in more places than a DC-3).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_am#Clipper_era>

That said -- Chicago to Italy should definitely be easterly.

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rsingel
I was initially underwhelmed, but on second thought, it turns out that crazy,
huge system of machines, trucks and humans that routes letters and packages
around the country is pretty amazing. Going to go with damilocampos on this
one.

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polyfractal
Mildly disappointing ending to what I hoped to be some epic
story/gimick/whatever.

Amusing that the USPS thought the vintage (fake) Egyptian postage was real
though

~~~
danilocampos
Oh, I disagree completely. I love the serendipity of this story far more than
if it were just a viral stunt on the part of Disney, U Chicago, or anyone
else. Something entirely mundane became something extraordinary for _everyone_
to enjoy.

I'm going to call that a win.

~~~
snogglethorpe
and the resolution is great too:

"Paul has graciously let us know that he will make the intended recipient a
new journal, and that we are welcome to keep this one— thanks, Paul! It will
find its home either in the Oriental Institute at UChicago or the Special
Collections at the Regenstein Library because, as many have noted, “It belongs
in a museum!”. "

It will be simply _too cool_ if it ends up in the Oriental Institute!

~~~
dredmorbius
Paul has just had epic incidental marketing.

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draq
Who has ordered his own replica journal?

~~~
DanBC
For $200!!

([http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Raiders-of-
the...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark-
Notebook-Journal-Prop-
Replica-/261143261406?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ccd59f0de))

The seller has sold a few of those, for between $150 and $200. Making
thousands of dollars seems like a pretty good business.

~~~
collypops
I think it's a great little package; the perfect gift for an Indiana Jones
buff. Unless that Indiana Jones buff is also a graphic designer:

"This is amazing! All of the little details like the illustrations and photos
make it look really authentic, and the letterheads...OH MY GOD, IT'S
PAPYRUS!!! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!!"

~~~
vl
Coincidently, do you know name of the font used on maps in LOTR/Hobbit movies?

For example: [http://ii.wbshop.com/fcgi-
bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/images/warner...](http://ii.wbshop.com/fcgi-
bin/iipsrv.fcgi?FIF=/images/warnerbros//source/warnerbros/hobezpposbem.tif&wid=3000&cvt=jpeg)

~~~
gecko
That particular font is a copy of Tolkein's personal handwriting, but you can
find similar font design in any of a dozen Gaelic fonts. (Or probably find a
font that's a copy of his handwriting, too; I don't know.)

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ekianjo
How can the contents of a package "drop" out of the package and then be routed
to the wrong place? Sounds like 18th century postal service going on there...

~~~
genuine
No, but it is Hawaii. They may not be backwards, but within a few days
visiting there I saw people on the job at two different locations taking a pot
break.

~~~
ekianjo
I would think they have rules about smoking in the workplace :)

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mathattack
It's a great story. One of the things I'm curious about is the original use...
What was it created for to begin with?

