(This is a public Service announcement).

Ahem. Everyone! If you could direct your attention to the stage? Everyone, please listen up! I have an LL12 announcement! Please, everyone take your hands out of your pockets, this is a sanctioned thread jack, so put your wallets on the table and no one will get hurt! Ha Ha! Joking! But in reality his could pay off handsomely for some or all of you!

<Open the script for me, please. Thank you>

{Background music, violins, slow and sweet, like a cool offshore breeze wafting in, stirring the palm leaves. An ironic oboe line begins to dance thru with a subdued yet slightly sarcastic melody…}

There is a distant beach on Loser Island where debris from the ocean currents comes aground. The meandering and arbitrary forces of the ocean have turned this deserted beach into a depositary for much of the world’s detritus, including discarded tokens of hidden idolatry. It was on this far off and undiscovered beach that discarded Survivor Idols began to wash up unnoticed a few years ago. Their powers a thing of the distant past, various mementos of Survivor seasons past all found this shore. Tribal immunity idols, individual immunity necklaces, extinguished torches, and impotent Hidden Immunity Idols. It was here that various cabalas were formed.

{Music takes on a darker tone, a slow menacing bassoon begins to track in the background.}

They are all losers. Some more resentful that others, some just plain crazy, but all were dregs of past Survivor seasons.

These losers aren’t the flesh and blood kind, these losers are wooden, decorated with feathers, beads, string, shells, and whatnot. Gradually various groups began to organize. Most importantly for our immediate story was the organization of the hidden idols, the Hidden Idol Cabal (HIC).

<Turn the page for me, please. Thank you>

The newest HI loser to wash up is ZIP, the Zombie Idol Poltergeist.

{A crazy piccolo begins to dance the melody.}

ZIP used to think that it was the best Hidden Idol of all time, that it was made for this game, and that it could get all the other blonde idols to do whatever it wanted, then it would just cast them aside as weakling idiots. ZIP was often heard bragging that it had this game in the bag, and that the other Idols ought to realize that they were just competing for second place. But in Samoa ZIP met his Waterloo, and became so badly traumatized that, much like the Joker when he got a face full of acid, it went insane. It actually became an animated, albeit tortured, spirit. A Zombie. A Zombie Idol, a Poltergeist. It became ZIP. Crazy ole ZIP. And Zip is a Putz.

{A gun shot rings out! A bent piccolo arcs thru the air, there is heard an agonizing groan, and the music abruptly ends}.

{Actually it’s just a Champaign cork that conked the piccolo player in the head, but the band, never known for bravery, runs screaming into the jungle, and we lose our mood music. Oh well.}

Predictably ZIP ended up on this deserted beach where many wandering loser spirits ultimately wash up. Where else could it go? It felt such a deep shame, shame that a gnome from East Texas could make it look so easy to figure out its hidey holes, shame that no one in Samoa even attempted to make a fake copy of it, and the ultimate shame (shudder) of being stashed in Russell’s underwear. The smell was bad enough, but worst part is the unspeakable horror. The horror, the horror….

So ZIP was driven around the bend. And he for some reason he blamed the Lodge Losers for his failure, not himself. After all, he was the best HI of all time, how could it be his fault? ZIP was also an inveterate gambler, and it was ZIP that came up with a revenge plan to mess with Lodge Losers. He proposed that they hide an Idol at Loser Lodge and make a bet that the Lodge losers couldn’t find it. Then he would laugh at the Lodge losers and make whoop whoops and obscene gestures in their faces when they failed.

A challenge was held to determine who would be the Loser Lodge Hidden Idol. Members of the HIC ran into the surf, retrieved bundles of parts, returned to shore and assembled a puzzle which spelled out Loser Lodge 12, and whoever finished last became the Loser Lodge HI and was renamed Louie.

ZIP bet that the Lodge losers were much too much into sin and the pleasures of the flesh to ever figure out where Louie was hidden. It seemed to be an odds-on bet at the time. I mean, how could the lovable yet looped losers we all know and love possibly have a real chance at any sober evaluation and deduction? ZIP is confident that he is smarter than any Loser, even 5th grade losers, and this could be his downfall.

<Please turn the page to the disclaimers>

Disclaimer: “I will make up disclaimers as I see fit.”

<Now, please, open up the rules section. Thank you>

So, all losers who manage to accidently guess where the LLHI (Louie) is will win the bet and ZIP will be forced to award him or her mess of points and admit that he is a loser like the rest of us.

So whatta ya think? Is that worth playing for?

This is what ZIP set up. In response to Tribe’s normal weekly LL thread post (in the future), a “BLUE MOON” response will be posted with an openly available Tree mail clue to Louie’s location.

This week the tree mail clue is:

”Whenever you hear the Coconut Thump
In the middle of the night,
Be reassured, our Louie is safe,
And will see the morning light.”

(Indicating that Louie isn’t outside under a coconut palm, so it’s a clue but not terribly helpful)

If, however, you accidentally picked the Zombie Idol Poltergeist (ZIP) card (a randomly assigned aspect of Tribe’s thread) you would have received via secret messenger (PM) this message:

”Louie likes a really good book,
He can be a real page turner.
Louie can’t ever put it down,
If he has a real barn burner.”

Plus a 10 point award.

(The secret clue could be used to deduce that Louie has been right in front of you all this time, turning my pages. This example is more revealing than the real clues will be. BTW, since you all read this, and perforce guessed the first location of Louie, you all get 20 points, plus the 10 point bonus. Yeah!….Fun game, right? Now ZIP will hide Louie again, and in or near week 3 or 4 you can expect to see the next “BLUE MOON” week. And after this, Louie will stay put. Everyone who guesses correctly will get the end of season reward (57 points), but no one will know if they won until the end of the season. Additionally, whoever has the best wrong guess (judging hilarity, best promised sexual favors for the judge, biggest bribe, most original sex toy, etc.) will get 13 points for “BLUE MOON” week guesses. Ties are possible.

At the end of this post, and included in every “BLUE MOON” post will be a list of possible hiding spots for Louie to pick from, but only guesses made on “BLUE MOON” Weeks will count.

Summarizing:
1. First week – everyone solved the gimme, so everyone gets 20 points. YEA!

2. Every “BLUE MOON” week – most entertaining guesses but inaccurate will get 13 points, multiple awards are possible. There maybe six or seven (more or less) “BLUE MOON” weeks.

3. End of season – Louie’s location is revealed and everyone who correctly guessed it (or in ZIP’s judgment gets close enough) gets 57 points.

4. 31 points may be awarded to whoever makes the best fake out guess, and actually seems to fool other posters. If there are no obvious fake outs, these points won’t be awarded.

5. On “BLUE MOON” weeks, Open Tree Mail clues will be posted for everyone to see, and Secret Tree Mail Clues will be PM’d to losers lucky enough to accidentally trigger it. 10 points awarded to the lucky losers that happen on these clues, along with the clues.

6. Louie’s location will be in one of the places listed in “BLUE MOON” Posts.

Probably six or seven tree mail “BLUE MOON” ” weeks (more or less) will arise. And just to confuse things further, some weeks may (ZIP hasn’t made his mind up on this yet) have two “BLUE MOON” events.

Random means there is no rhyme or reason as to what you have to do to get a secret clue, just keep participating every week and watch your PM flag. At some point everyone that participates in the weekly Lodge activities will likely get a tree mail or two, even if luck completely deserts them and they never really earn it, they just won't get the 10 point bonus. ZIP is just crazy like that. He’s a nut!

However, you should watch your fellow loser’s posts, if someone makes a mysteriously smart seeming guess, they might know something you don’t. Or they maybe bluffing, trying to juke you out. There is incentive for them to do so.

The first open and the first secret treemails are free, courtesy of the mania and hubris of ZIP. He’s a maniac.

If you get the secret clue and want to make a guess, post it and whatever reasoning you wish to include. If you want to guess without a clue, have at it! Again, one guess per “BLUE MOON” week, except for weeks when two “BLUE MOON” posts are made. Then two guesses are allowed in the week. No acknowledgement of guess accuracy will be made until final award ceremony when all correct guesses and the associated point awards will be revealed. The announcement of successful winner(s) and the awards will be made at the end of season wrap party, aka the LL12 Gala award show.

On “BLUE MOON” weeks, whoever is the funniest, sauciest, loudest, or just uniquely-est you will earn a 13 point bonus for that week. Ties are possible.

<OK. Finished. Close the rule book and put it somewhere safe.>

If I think of any cool new rules I'll post then on “BLUE MOON” weeks.

Agman did it.