====== Wampahoofus ======


===== Recruitment =====

I was recruited for the NPL at the [[misc:acpt1998|1996 Stamford tournament]] by (I believe in this order) [[Ditto]], [[geneac|Sunshine]].  Also, when I had not yet taken the plunge, Brian Olewnick reminded my of my resolve at the Bang on a Can music festival in New York. Another important factor was seeing the February 1996 Enigma open to [[Xemu]]'s "Connect the Dots" cryptic. 

Source: Letter from Wampahoofus, 1990's, updated 2007.

//First Issue: // no date.

===== Recruits =====

I recruited Voks (the only person ever to invite me to a bar/bat mitzvah) at the tournament held at the Ethical Culture building in White Plains.  Jon Dark was my brother-in-law, and the only member of his generation of my wife's family who enjoyed words as games.  

  * [[jondark|Jon Dark]]. 
  * [[Voks]].

===== Nom =====

The name "Wampahoofus" comes from a hiking trail on the south side of Mt. Mansfield(("The wampahoofus was a large mammal, now extinct, that some say resembled a moose-gnu hybrid. Its worldwide range was limited to part of Mt. Mansfield, usually between 2600 and 3200 feet up." //See also: //[[wp>Wampahoofus]] or [[http://www.naturecompass.org/gmcburlington/news/0410wamp.html]])), the highest point in Vermont.  Many years and pounds ago, I managed to hike the entire Long Trail, which traverses the state from north to south.  The Wampahoofus trail was named so by the Long Trail Patrol, because a rock formation thereon was thought to resemble the profile of a sidehill Wampahoofus.  This also relates to my puzzling interests, since one of the most fascinating Sunday New York Times crosswords I encountered, in the days when my mother commandeered this puzzle, was a Farrar-edited masterpiece whose themewords were various European folk monsters, including a gyascutus, which lived on the sides of hills and ate children.  I would have to think "Wampahoofus" is a variant of that.  Subsequently I have realized that that word fits the march theme from the last movement of Mahler's 6th Symphony. 

==== Combinoms ====

  * Wabbahartarketi: [[Wabbit]], Wampahoofus, [[Dart]], [[jondark|Jon Dark]], and [[Dyeti]]


===== Offices =====

No data.