It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Thanks Nicole. We're on another road trip tonight because of course we broadcast here on Nightside on terrestrial radio thirty eight states to the thirty eight of the finest states in America and some of the great provinces up in Canada. My name is Dan Ray, and of course we're also on the internet. You can listen to us. If you have any problems listening to us on a radio, all
I gotta do is download the iHeartRadio app. It's all for free and you can listen to WBZ Radio anytime twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year. My name is Dan Ray. I'm the host of Nightside. I am here every weeknight, Monday through Friday from eight until midnight. And back at the broadcast central headquarters of iHeart Radio, Rob Brooks iHeartMedia. Rob Brooks is as ready to take your phone calls, but not until after nine o'clock when we get into issues and topics.
Were into viewing some very special guests, many of whom are newsmakers, and many of whom are involved in programs that really the backbone of our community, and one that is the backbone of our community is Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts. With us is Sarah Conahan, the chief Development officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts. Sarah, welcome. I wish we had done this about a week ago. You fos have a golf tournament
tomorrow morning. So all of you golfers out there get to bed, well, listen to night Side, but go right to bed at midnight and get those clubs. Set the alarm for about six o'clock in the morning. Tell us about the golf tournament, and then we'll talk a little bit more about Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Go ahead, Sarah, great, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me. We are thrilled to have our annual Bacon Burrell Memorial Golf golf Tournament tomorrow. It's our twenty second year. It will be at Juniper Hills in North Borrow. We're expecting
one hundred and eighty golfers for a great day. We're anticipating to raise about seventy five thousand for the organization and collectively the event has raised six hundred thousand over the past twenty two years, and we renamed the tournament in twenty seventeen in honor of one of our littles, de Kwon Burrell, who was tragically passed away that year.
So it's a special tournament. It really features and highlights our big brothers and big sisters and their networks and connections, and it's a great day for the agency.
What were the circumstances of de Kwan's passing? Was it natural causes or was he a victim of It was.
A victim of unfortunately of ye circumstances. So yeah, it was a terrible loss for our community.
Okay, So no seventeen year old individual should ever ever lose their life, and I grau for keeping his name and his memory alive the Dokwan Burrell Memorial Big Golf Tournament. So first of all, let's deal with the question of if there are you booked up tomorrow? Do you have all.
The We do have some openings. We'd love to have a few additional golfers. So if people are hearing this and able to join us tomorrow at Juniper Hills in Northborough, we'd be thrilled to have you.
Yeah, I'm assuming that there's a lot of golfers in the western Massachusetts suburbs, and I'm maybe looking for one more tournament to play. So that's great. Tell Us about Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I know quite a bit about it. Never been actively involved, either as a little
or as a big but it's a great organization. And I know we've we've profiled Big Brothers Big Sisters during a couple of our what we call the night Side Charity combine my last two hours every year just before Christmas, we profiled about twenty twenty two charities over a two hour period. For those who may have and I kind of imagine anybody in our audience has never heard of Big Brothers Big Sisters, explain to to how it works.
Because there's a lot of young people in their twenties and thirties for whom this creates a great opportunity to give back to their community, maybe before they themselves find themselves spending a lot of time with their own children when they get to the parenting years. So tell us who can join, who can participate, and who benefits.
Absolutely absolutely, So we are in our seventy fifth year where the states leading one to one mentoring program for youth, and so we partner with families to provide children with one to one relationships with caring adults who help them to reach their fullest potential. And we have several different ways in which bigs can partner with littles. We have our traditional programming, community based programming, where you meet with
your little a couple of times a month. We have school based programming where we take youth to academic colleges and they meet with college students. And then we have high school based programming, which is a hybrid programming where you're connecting virtually and also in person. So we really have a range of opportunities for mentorship, and we like to meet people where they're at given their life circumstances and ways for people to volunteer and get involved.
So who's the profile of you volunteer, what's their age, what's their background, what's their give give us a description of the volunteers. So people who are listening, who may be listening themselves, or maybe there's some grandparents or parents out there who are listening and saying, you know, this might be a good program for Sometimes people in their twenties they're looking to meet other people. Maybe they're not people who are going to be comfortable hanging out at bars.
But this is a great opportunity for the twenty somethings to do something positive, So give us a profile there is.
Yeah, that's great. It's a range we definitely are looking for, always looking for men. We have a wait list of young boys who are looking to be matched. So we're always looking for men who are looking to become big brothers, particularly those that are, as you said, in their twenties and early thirties. But we also attract young people who are at the other end of their career and have
time to give back. They may be retired or semi retired, and I think you know, the main characteristic is someone who's looking to make a difference in the child's life and it doesn't take a lot of time, and it can have a transformational impact on a young person's life. And what we hear most often is that our bigs get as much out of the relationship as our littles do, and so it's a very meaningful relationship on both sides.
Just roughly, I don't know if you keep track of this, but roughly, how many young people are mentored through big brothers big sisters every year?
Well, historically we've started. Historically, we've started five thousand youth over the past seventy five years. This year we'll serve four thousand youth and our goal is to serve ten thousand youths over the next three years. So we have very ambitious goals, and we often have children that are on a wait list waiting to be matched. So if you're at all inclined or interested, we'd love to have a conversation with you. It's very easy to sign up.
You can find information on our website at emasbigs dot org. We'd love to speak to you, learn a little bit more about your interests. But it's it can be a transformative relationships and a little time makes a huge difference in the child.
I want to give that website one more time. I'm going to read it. It's EMASS bigs and that stands for Eastern Massachusetts, so E m Ass and then the word bigs b I g s dot org all one word E massbiggs really simple dot org. Sarah, thanks so much.
I wish you're best of luck with the golf tournament tomorrow, and I'm hoping that our listeners who are close in that neck of the woods that part of Massachusetts might get up early tomorrow morning and say, hey, I want to have gone and play eighteen and benefit a great charity. Thanks you.
I'd love to have you too, if you're free and you want to know.
Well, the problem I have is I'm not in the western suburbs right now and broadcasting remotely, and my workday starts at nine o'clock when you start to put together the show for tomorrow night. So maybe some year I'll take day off is a vacation day and come out and try to hit a few golf ball straight, which for me is a real challenge. Okay. I spend a lot of time in the woods when I play. Thank you, Sarah.
We appreciate that opportunity to share a little bit about our work and thank you for giving us time.
You have a great story. Absolutely, the organization has a great story. Thank you so much. When we get back, we're gonna get a lighten up a little bit here. We're gonna talk about a Boston based restaurant that has I read this the other day. I read it twice, actually three or four times. It's a ten thousand dollars true Boston proposal experience. We're gonna talk with Paul Barker, the owner of Polly's in Boston, and try to try to figure this one out, because frankly, I always believe
in primary source. And you read a newspaper column or an article and you say, oh, I that's some questions. So we'll figure it out with Paul Barker, owner of Pauli's in Boston. We're gonna talk about this ten thousand dollars true Boston Proposal experience later on tonight. By the way, we're gonna talk about a twenty six thousand dollars treasure hunt that's hidden somewhere in the woods here in the Northeast. I guess this is a night for we're talking big adventures.
We'll be back on Night's side right after this quick break.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World night Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
All right, I have heard about this, this ten thousand dollars true Boston proposal. Was intrigued by it. So we have the owner of Paully's restaurant in Boston's North End, Paul Barker, who's going to explain how this works. I got to tell you, Paul, I've read it in the papers. I'm a little confused, but I spend a lot of my time in a state of confusion. Can you clear this up from me? What are we talking about here?
Bork?
Can you hear me?
I can hear you just perfectly right now?
Hi, darn you?
Hi? Okay, hope you heard my question. I was kind of a long question. Did you hear the question?
I just gone on? It was cut out, so yeah, if you could, if you can refra that, I'd love to hear it.
Okay, I've heard about the ten thousand dollars true Boston proposal experience. I've read about it. More confused than ever. What are we talking about, Paulie? You are you are the primary source for for my listeners. What are we talking about here?
We're talking about is delicious wopster row. As you know, Paula is known for the sandwiches and our oversized lobster rolls, mostps rolls, and today's National Lopsterday. We thought we'd do something, you.
Know what, I did not realize that, Paulie, thank you for reminding its National Lobsterday. Now there's a tie in. Go ahead. I'm all ears and okay.
So we're always We're all about making paul Is a great customer experience. We like to do fun things. Our menu is fun, uh, from our oversized sandwiches to our time food, but mostly we're we're known for our lobster rolls. And so we did wet we come up with something a little fun for National Lots today and we dressed
up one of our lobster roles. It's called the USS Lobstitution and it's a it's a two for twenty eight ounced WAPs the roll which we've decorated with edible gold leaf and we've finished it off with a uh one point five eight carrot ring almost one point seventy eight one point one and three quarter carrot diamond ring. And we thought this would be a great what a fun thing to do for our customers.
So's no one's gonna eat the diamond ring.
What I'm hoping that some lucky person that remaining on their finger by the by the time this is all over. So we feel that it We've had we've had to hendres to call and everybody's asking questions and uh, you know, and some people I was like, okay, we postpone it to.
So is the lobs Now, let me ask you this, Paully. I know it's late in the evening and it's eight coming well, it's coming up eight twenty five. Is the lobster roll right now sitting in the restaurant and available for anyone who's in the area.
Anybody that pops in, the lobster is ready for them. But we don't we actually make the lobster roll to orus. It's specially made, I guess said. It's a twenty eight ounce lobster roll. It's Clara k Notch. It's delicious. The bread is the bread is like is buttered and light lightly lightly grilled. And then I said, like I said, some lucky Presson's gonna hopefully wear that diamond ring out and be wearing that at the end of the night.
Okay, so you're expecting or you're hoping that, oh, a young couple somewhere in the Great A Boston area right now are going to drive to your restaurant in Boston's North End, present themselves and say, hey, we'd like to gorge ourselves with this twenty eight ounce lobster roll. I'm assuming that the cost of the lobster roll it's just not the first couple who walks in the door, I assume they have to bring their credit card with them. Correct.
Absolutely, So basically, you know, this is not I.
Don't want people getting into automobile accidents now rushing Nepauli's restaurant.
It's one hundred dollars lobster roll feeds for people. You're getting the lobster roll for free. Well, he just you know, basically with selling the experience of having a diamond ring, but actually doing it in a most delicious way.
Yeah, no, I get it. And again you do. You guys do great lobster rolls. I know that. But my question is, and I'm not I'm not a jeweler or a jewelry expert. Can you give me an idea? I mean, you've seen this diamond ring. What's its approximate value?
It's it's ten thousand dollars retail. Okay, retail.
I was hoping that was what you were going to say. I want to know.
It's a ten thousand dollars a ten thousand dollars ring. If then it's it's been a praise. Uh, it's sitting in the safe again.
It's beautiful, Okay, so if there's any couple.
Of we've had pictures of it. Yeah, we've had pictures of it on the lobster row.
Great. Great. So if if some gentlemen is riding around now this obviously no one has called to plan this in advance. So this has got to be a spur of the moment thing.
And got to be likes a questions.
It's conceivable that someone has planned to pop the question, as you say, but they haven't figured out how to do it in a really interesting and unique way. So you're providing with them this opportunity, which it might be spur of the moment. Paulie, I'm hoping that there might be some couple driving around right now somewhere in Greater Boston. How late are you open tonight? O?
Nine?
But you know what, we were virtual nine thirty. So if they come in late, the door is going to open. We're open for them. And you know what, I think, it's a what a unique way to propose right something you'll never forget.
I mean I could think of some unique ways. You know, the people who work it out at a ballpark and the cameras on them, and those are always moments in time where you hope she says yes, And every once in a while it doesn't work, and it's it's horrible to watch. But I'm assuming that that whoever's listening to us tonight, and maybe that special couple that's going to walk in your door, they understand that, you know, true love will find a way. I guess this is what I'm trying to.
Say, you know what, And there's still time and you know, and they'll have privacy to because basically we'll close the doors at that point.
They have that they working there. Paul, this is a big question valet parking because you know, it's it's tough to find a space in the North End.
You know, nobody there's a lot of value packing around the North End. Paul's does not have valley packing, but there's parking spaces in front of the North in front of Polly's and his valet packing up and down the street. So yeah, there's there's value of parking.
And give us in case anyone's reaching for their GPS right now, what's the what's the address.
Sixty five Sam Street, Boston, mass We're waiting for you, uh and we have you know, there's a beautiful lost of all waiting for you as well.
All right, well I'm not going to be there, but but hopefully someone who's been listening to us right now has been inspired to take this moment in time Carpy DM today. All right, PAULI, thank.
You, love me so, thank you very much for having us.
You're very welcome. I enjoyed talking with you, Paulie. I had a lot of friends in the North End.
Come come down someday, have a lobster with me.
Yeah, I'll be happy to do that. When you see my friend Joe Salvati, you say hello. Everybody in the North End knows Joe Silvadi.
Oh I know Joe.
I'll say hi to him, say hi to woman. Ask him what he thinks of the guy that did the TV stories that that got him some justice back up in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety seven. We started in nineteen ninety three. But oh really, finally, yeah, finally Joe got Joe good justice. Joe could afford that launched a roll, by the way, with it without the ring.
I want you to know, Okay, oh my god, I think you and Joe should come down and have a watch to roll with me. Love that.
Let's do that.
Plan that out someday.
All right, Paulie nice chatting with you.
We'll do that. Okay, have a good way, Thank you.
My friend. Goodnight. I do believe in six degrees of separation. Anyone who listens to this show knows that. I'm a huge believer that that you know someone who also knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who's the President of the United States or who is the head of whatever. So I do believe that people know people. It's as simple as that. Now we're going to talk on the other side of the eight thirty News about an effort to preserve Boston's musical legacy. This city has a rich
legacy in terms of education, medicine, sports. We all know that. We also come on, think about it, Ero Smith, we have we have a great musical legacy. And we're going to talk with Bobby Boyd. He's the executive director of the Record and Company, and they are trying to provide affordable access to rehearsal rooms and recording studios right here in Boston. Don't have to go to Nashville, don't have to go to New York City. We will talk with Bobby Boyd. He'll explain it all on the other side.
On the other side of the break.
It's night Side with Boston's News Radio.
Well, as I mentioned before the break, Boston has a lot of great legacy, sports legacy, medical legacy, educational legacy, all sorts of legacies. But we also have a great musical legacy Boston Pops, Aerosmith all. Look. I can go on and on and on, but who would be better to talk about this than my guest. Bobby Boyd is the executive director of the Record and Company. Bobby, Welcome to Night Side. What does your company do? What does your company provide?
Dan?
Thanks for having me Man the Record Co. We're a nonprofit community space in the city, and what we provide is really just affordable recording and rehearsal space for local musicians. And we started that back in twenty ten and now operate out of two spaces, one at nine to sixty Massive and one at fifty five more.
So, Okay, now I talk about the legacy, and my question to you is how great a need is there for more space.
I think the need is I think we're at a critical a critical point. You know. The iconic venue is like the Sound Museum, that has closed. Great scott Middle East was barely hanging on and I think they survived. So there's a there's a critical need for space and rehearsal space is just just disappearing. The rising costs of pushing a lot of artists out of the city. So it's not about just buildings closing. It's about, you know, losing the spaces where the city's culture is kind of
created and shared. So I think it's I think the needs pretty pretty significant.
And now I assume you know, we're hearing these stories of all the commercial space in Boston because of COVID that has not been refilled as companies had, you know, sent their employees home, and a lot of people now like to work on home from home and do zoom calls. And I worked remotely. I used to work in a in a building, in a studio, in a building, in a radio studio. Right now I work remotely with all
the equipment I need and it's it's pretty easy. So is there explain to us how many people in Boston over the year, over either the years or a year, want to get to a professional studio to record. I mean, obviously, you know, when you think about you know, the Arrowsmith and some of the great bands that have come out of Boston, and a lot more than that. They need space. But are there a lot of people on that pyramid?
You know, if Arrowsmith and those sorts of bands are at the top, are there a lot of the newer, the younger bands. They are their hopes and dreams and aspirations, and they need affordable space in order to produce the product that they hope will light up arenas around the world.
Yeah, I think that, you know, I think there's a massive need for space. I mean, we see that. You know, like recent studies have shown the Massachusetts is losing a lot of the young population to like you know, you know, riding costs of cost of living here. So you know, it's kind of a double hit when you consider the music community because you know, to the point it's making earlier it's just fewer spaces with them the create and perform. It's becoming harder for them to even afored living here.
So having affordable recording and rehearsal spaces is that actual God send to most of these folks. And this is young animal, you know, folks that might just be picking up an instrument for the first time today to someone
that's more professionalized that are using our spaces. And a lot of our partner organizations we work with a lot with like Community Music cent Our Boston, Boston Public Schools and things like that, so we get a lot of different you know, disciplines that come in and use the space or have a critical need for that kind of space. So it's it's really it's really critical.
So the project you're trying to raise funds, I guess is what it comes down to, right?
Oh?
Absolutely, yeah, Okay, So what what direct people as to if they've been convinced, if they feel so inclined, how can they help you meet this need?
Yeah.
So our campaign, our current campaign, our new campaign is called Amplify Boston, and we're aiming to raise a million dollars right now. And this is you know, crucial to our mission. And you know, we're being very strategic about how we use this money and you know, supporting our operations but making some key hires, but also advocating for more space in the city, permanent space for artists that
we believe they deserve. So folks that are interested in supporting the record code, they can go to the website at the Record Co dot org and they can click on a link that says amplify Boston. You can make a contribution there or you can you know, stop, buy for a tour see me. We have some pretty good coffee.
You'd love our spaces twenty bookable rooms of recording in rehearsal space at nine to sixty maths have and then we have ninety bookable monthly rehearsal spaces at fifty five more se So between those two locations, four thousand creatives a month are being served and we till that we're doing really really great work. So we greatly love everyone's support.
Five Morris is over by I assume BC High the Boston Globe building somewhere the neck of the woods. Okay, nine to sixty mass have whereabouts? So the people, if they want to find you, where do they go?
So yeah, the rerecord co dot org is the website. But nine sicky map mass A is right in the New Market Square area. Uh, just the stones throw from Boston Medical Center, right directly across from the U haul and over.
Where we're massive cast had been. So yeah, that is that's that's hopefully moved on for good.
Yeah, cleaned up a bit.
Yeah, I would always needs to be cleaned up quite a bit, Bobby boy. The luck with this, This is a big project you've undertaken, and I hope some people out there are going to support you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Thank you for having me. Dan greatly appreciate it.
You welcome. All right, Okay, well we get back. We're going to talk about I just read this story. It's an amazing story. We're going to talk with the new Hampshire video game Designer's name is Jason Rora or Rower like Billy rob than Er Rorer. We'll find out the correct pronunciation in a moment. And he's created an actual treasure hunt game that you can participate in. And there's a golden statue made out of twelve ounces of gold hidden in the woods here in the Northeast and someone,
someone's gonna find it. This is a great story. We'll be back with my guest Jason Roer right after this.
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Well, I read this story today, read it tonight. Actually it's called Project Skydrop Find the Gold Statue. Reap cash and treasure hunt. This is a great story with us. Is Jason Rorer your first four letters the same as a great picture? Well, a really good picture for the Boston Red Sox. You ever hear Billy Rore?
No?
Actually, how long ago did he play?
Well, he played in the late sixties, so he's not what you call recent. But his first game was at Yankee Stadium. He came very close to pitching a no hitter against the Yankees.
Span So that's Rohr. I'm rh r e R.
Yeah.
I know he's a pipe and I'm a piper in German?
Is that what it is? Okay, Well, that's good to know. He's a great guy. He's a lawyer out in California now, but he one hit the Yankees in like the third game of the season in nineteen sixty seven. What's your question?
Right?
The impossible dreams? So you have you have a wonderful probably a relative there that I want you to be worked. Okay, tell us about the New England the New Hampshire video game. You're a New Hampshire video game designer. You have had quite a career designing games. My friend I was very impressed with the article in the globe today.
Yeah, I've been doing it for a long time. Made. I usually make games that are sort of artistic or philosophical or make you think, games that are supposed to do the same kind of thing that a great novel or a great movie might do for you.
Well, we're taught show. That's one of my slogans. I don't care what you think. I just want to make sure you're thinking. So we're in the same page.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, you know, not making games where big burly men shoot aliens. You know that kind of thing.
Yeah, I understand that, right, fake aliens. Fake.
But even though I'm making these games that you know are philosophically interesting or whatever, they're still mostly played by people who play video games. And so I've been thinking a lot halfway through my career about how can I branch out a little bit more and make things for ordinary people like my aunts and uncles and my cousins and my sister who like to hear about my games but don't ever really have time to play them. And
so Project Skydrop is a real world treasure hunt. Something you do off of a screen has involved a real world adventure, and it's something that a lot of these people who haven't really ever gotten to play my games are suddenly interested in they always.
You mean you actually leave your home and go outside into the wilderness to participate in Project Skydrop.
This is Yeah.
The graphics out there are amazing. Everything looks so realistic out there.
Oh no, I just said that, Wow, this is very cool. I've never seen this before. It's called a forest. Okay, so you have designed and assignisty and created or commissioned. I'm not sure what bourb I should use there, but you have designed this this beautiful. It looks like, I don't know, it almost looks like a trophy the way you've designed it.
Yeah. Yeah, So I'm working with my creative partner, Tom Bailey, who helped me design this treasure, and he drew the initial sketch of it. He was thinking it looked something like the expanding expansion of the universe during the Big Bang or something like that.
Well, that's exactly what I was thinking. By the way what I saw it, I said, that's the expansion of the universe.
Yeah, it could have been kind of a funnel type shape.
It could be it could have been like a trophy for a professional sports team. That's what it looked like. It was beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful.
And I appreciate that. And then so he designed it. He did the initial sketch, and then I did some three D modeling to make it real, and then I actually cast it in gold myself, so had it printed it with a three D wax printer. The jewelers used to print all the wedding rings and everything are printed with these high end wax printers now, and so I
had to print it as a wax model. And then I encased it in plaster and then burned out the wax and then heated gold up to nearly two thousand degrees fahrenheit and poured it in and that beautiful event polished it, of course, hand polished it myself.
And so the actual value twelve ounces of gold right now.
Gold, yes, ten ounces, and gold is at this highest price in human history right now, which we're lucky to.
Say, given that we're twenty six an ounce.
Yes, it's pretty crazy. So this treasure is worth just if you wanted to melt it down for its spot value, in spot metal value, it's worth twenty six thousand dollars. Of course, you know, there's a lot of value as a unique object beyond that, right of course.
Now you have hidden this somewhere in the northeast, which yes, every day you are basically going to help people who are going to follow. Is how many people do you have out there? Nice time?
We just crossed as of today, we just crossed the three thousand player mark. And these are all people who have paid to enter the contest. And so today was our biggest day. Actually we had more than a thousand people joined just today.
And the only way, the only way that you can win this contest. This is not something that you sit on a computer. You have to figure out where this is and you have to trek into nature.
Yes, and you have to go with your own hand and reach down. It's not buried. It's just sitting there on the forest floor, waiting, just out in the open. Which is the craziest thing about it, right, So somebody is going to walk up into the woods, walk to the spot, see that it's still there, reach down and just pick it up off the ground.
Our animals in the forest, our beers are eligible or do they have to also pay an entry fae.
Well, so we knew that the treasures just sitting out there in plane view. It's very tantalizing the that's the case. Wouldn't it be interesting if we can kind of see it sitting there. So we actually installed these trail cameras in the trees around the treasure, and two of them broadcast live to the website twenty four hours a day, and one of them is doing a time lapse every fifteen minutes day and night. It has night vision mode on it and so on, and so we've been able
to see the treasure every morning. I wake up and check the trail cam on the website. Oh my gosh, Shoot, the treasure is still there. It hasn't been found yet. We catch some animals, so.
We got what's the wildest animal that has gone by?
So we saw a very wild looking opossum who spent a lot of time posing in front of the camera, opening and closing his mouth, whipping up the treasure with his tail. We saw a porcupine run by one night, and we've also seen two different deer, a doe and a buck with antlers come and stand right near the treasure. Fortunately none of them have kicked it or knocked it over or stepped on it because gold is very ductile and it would get crushed easily.
Yeah. Wow, ducktile. That's a word that's never been used on Night Side in seventeen years.
Now you got a new word to use.
That's good. Okay. So you are also giving hints. You actually have a website. Let's give get the website. So you started off, as I understand that, with an area that extended five hundred miles that covered a lot of the northeast.
Right, yes, yes, So it's on projectskydrop dot com. And right at the top of the website you see this map and there's a circle on the map. On day one, which was on Thursday last week, on the nineteenth, the circle was five hundred miles in diameter and encompassed what I call the Boss Wash Megalopolis, which is the megalopolis that extends from Boston all the way down to Washington, d C. Including Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and so on.
Huge population center. That's why I picked this area because there's like sixty million people who live in that circle was not in the middle of nowhere. It's not out in Nevata where no one lives.
Right, no, no, I get that right, Well, it's Montana when no one's lived, when no one lives, I've never been anybody who actually lives in Montana. Anyway. You do not have this sitting on a street corner in Philadelphia. I'm convinced of that. This is somewhere in nature, because you've got deer walking by and all of that. So you don't have to worry about finding it in the in Gotham or anything like that. It's somewhere in the woods. And each day you are making the circle a little.
Smaller, that's right, yes, And so every day the circle shrinks. It shrinks every day at nine am, and if you're actually on the website at nine am, you can watch it shrinking. So people often tune in who are part of the hunt and see you, Oh, where's it going to go?
Now?
Shrink again? Soday? Right at the starter is five hundred and three ninety five three thirteen.
That's good, dumb question here. When you did the five hundred mile radius, okay, if you had, if you had looked, if you had, you were mathematically inclined and said, okay, there's the there's the radius. But they're going to shrink the radius. The middle of the diameter, which of course would be the center of the circle. That has to be where it is. Or does the circle move a little bit as it shrinks? Does it move?
Yes, that would not be very clever if it was at the center the whole time.
Right, if I could figure it out. You know, it's not all that clever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I thought, yeah, I thought, okay, well, yeah, it can't just go to the center and find it.
No one has ever confused me with Albert Einstein.
Okay, so the circle every time it shrinks, it stays within the next larger circle. It never moves outside of the original circle. It gets smaller, and it moves over a little bit right, and it moves. It moves in a random way that can't be predicted. But it always keeps the treasure somewhere in the circle. As it gets smaller and smaller.
Theoretically could move back one day to some extent.
Uh No, every new circle has to be in the previous larger circle, so it's always getting inside of itself. Very similar to actually the you know, the treasure has these shrinking circles in it as part of its desire. So this is going to happen over the next three weeks twenty one days, and toward the end it'll go down to eight miles, six miles, four miles, two miles, one mile, and on the final day the circle is shrink to a single foot pinpointing the location of the treasure.
So we can guarantee that sometime in three weeks it will be found. It's not one of these treasure hunts that's going to go on for ten years or forty years and not be solved. So it's going to end in three weeks for sure.
Okay, so how can you bring it down? But Rob, he'll just say, we got a minute left. Rob is at it, Okay, thirty seconds. Okay, when you bring it down to a foot, okay, will people be able to figure the longitude, latitude, et cetera. Or will they?
Yeah? Basically you zoom in on the map and you can see exactly where it is down to the Yes. Absolutely. And on top of that, they're getting these photographic clues. So the people who join get aerial photographs taken from higher and higher altitudes each day looking down at the treasure, showing more and more of the landscape, and so they're kind of racing to see where the new photograph today
was taken inside. The circle is getting smaller and smaller, and I never go a smaller photographs show more and more, and those things cross when somebody finally goes and then picks it up.
I'm small enough never to ask a question I know the person won't answer, So I'm not going to ask you what state in which is this going to be fun?
I'm not going to answer you.
No, I'm saying that I'm s wanding up not to ask that question. So what I would What I would ask you though, in all honesty, Jason, is when they find this, come on back and.
Oh absolutely yes, and we we hopefully we can come back with the winner.
Yeah. Absolutely, we can bring the winner absolutely perfect, perfect, So we'll when that happens, let us know. And this sounds like a great idea. If folks want to get in touch with you, project skydrop dot com, is that it?
Yes, Project skydrop dot com.
Okay, if they want to get in touch with your company, is there.
My name is Jason rohrer R o h r e R. And you can look me up on Google. I'm very easy to find because I've been making games for twenty.
Years sounds great. Jason really enjoyed the conversation.
Thank you much, Yes, thank you sir.
All Right, that was fun. We get back, we're going to talk about something that isn't fun, and that is the fact that students in Massachusetts, they're cast results have been dropping, uh and with no end in sight. And we're gonna talk about that and hopefully we'll hear from We'll hear from educators, parents, and who knows, maybe some students coming back on Nightside.