Join the new world

First, some thanks are overdue. I’d like to say thank you to CannaGuy for letting me into eCanada and to Jenavive RoseThorne Gemstone for providing me a spiffy new name. To celebrate (and because just clicking a fight button is boring) I’d like to give some stuff away through a contest. Before I get to that, there’s a story about it that I’d like to share.

Tucking me into bed, my grandparents would tell me about how things were so different in the Old Country. Generally, it was a depressingly poor and yet inspiring period that they struggled through. Between famines and farmer uprisings (and the subsequent harsh crackdowns), there wasn’t a lot of free time around the village for fun and games. Still, these people found the time and means to put together a great contest on the first Sunday of every month whether rain or shine, winter freeze or summer heatwave, famine or revolt. They called this great game “Find the Potato” (the untranslated name has a better ring to it, really).

An extra potato to eat may not seem like much now, but back then, especially in that region, a good-sized potato free of rot or damage was no small extravagance. So, to make this great lottery possible, each family would set aside a little extra each week, which they would then pool together to fund that month’s contest. After a few weeks of scrounging, the kolkhozy (“But it wasn’t cozy at all!” as my grandfather joked) would have enough to bribe the district’s Distribution & Collection Superintendent into letting them keep one extra, good quality potato from that month’s farming quota.

This Potato was then entrusted with several village elders who would safeguard it until the end of the workweek, whereupon after the clocks were striking thirteen to signal Saturday night curfew, they would sneak out to hide this Potato in the most elaborate location they had devised. This location could be anywhere: down a well, under a shed, inside a horse (don’t ask), or as simple as under someone’s hat. As you can imagine, Find the Potato involved frenzied searches that would go on all day, sometimes even resulting in injury and (over the decades) the odd fatality (people stopped wearing hats on the first Sunday of each month after one particularly bad incident). Whoever first discovered this potato would get to keep the prize, of course, but generally it was in good form to share it with others. The real prize was the prestige of being that month’s Finder of the Potato because it granted you special privileges, like being first to stand in line at each morning’s gruel dispersal.

Can you spot the Potato in the picture below?

(Trick question actually…the correct answer being “Somewhere else” or “Rotting on a train bound to somewhere else.”)

So, to revive this tradition in memory of my Baba and Dido, I’d like to launch what is probably eRepublik’s (and probably the Internet’s) first Find the Potato contest. Understandably, not everyone in the community has gotten a chance to tithe for it like in the ways of the Old Country, so what I’ve done is pool together the stuff given to me by other players. I would like to thank Cannaguy, mhilly, and Dill Pickl for giving me supplies or money that will serve to represent the Potato.

The contest is fairly straightforward. Look at the picture’s below and tell me where you think the potato is hidden. The person with the most correct answers wins the prize. I doubt anyone will play along so if you just give a few correct answers, then I am sure you have a strong chance of winning the following:
-50 Q7 food
-1,100 Q1 food
-10 Q7 weapons
-7 Gold
-1,100 CAD

It’s not a big stash, but then, neither was the actual Potato. Maybe people will confer some honorary status upon this month’s Finder of the Potato, but I cannot guarantee such a thing. The game starts easy but then gets progressively harder. Here’s a sample to help illustrate how the game works:


(sample hidden Potato)

If you guessed “In the middle” or “To the left of the broccoli” or “In front of the lettuce” then you would be correct. An answer that is less clear (like “In the picture” or “Beside the other vegetables”) may be deemed incorrect.

Your answers will be collected in an online survey form. I reserve the right to post the best and worst answers in a follow-up article.
Answer here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TNXSWMW

1. One big 'tater

(yes, that is a real farmer)

2. DicTater

(yes, this is also real)

3. You are what you eat

(answers may vary)

4. Natural habitat of the garden-variety Potato

(hint: the tomato is not only a fruit but also the right answer…except not in this case)

5. Hot Potato

(getting harder…hint: a Potato need not be seen to be known)

6. Master of Disguise

(you know it’s in there somewhere...fun fact: having all but 2 basic nutrients needed for a complete human diet, the humble Potato is one of the most versatile foods out there)

7. Incan Gold

(Contrary to popular belief, gold was not the most valuable thing plundered by the Conquistadors from the New World)

8. Spudghog

(if cooked properly, both can be delicious yet only one tastes like a Potato)

9. Freedom Fries

(fyi: it’s not spelled “Patatoe” -- there’s no “e” unless there’s two or more Patates)

10. Eat this, Jerry!

(Before simply mashing the fight button in eRepublik, there was this kind of Potato)

11. Junk Toys

(fyi: The Industrial Revolution in England was made possible by the easily produced and nutritious Potato; however, now the mass-produced junk that we buy from China is likely not made by potato-fueled workers)

12. Family ties

(fyi: did you know that the yam and potato are not closely related at all despite their great similarities? Find the plant/branch on the tree that is most closely related)

13. Where's Potato?!?!?

(yes, the Potato is in there somehwere, keep looking)