Short and sweet!!!

We here at Sacile Madness H3 are fortunate enough to have hashers from European and Okinawan hashing descent in our pack.  As this can sometimes cause "we're right, their wrong, what the hell are they talking about?" syndrome within a hash (many of you know what I mean) we have embraced this as a blessing and managed to avoid the bantering and bickering.  We enjoy sharing songs, tales of previously unthought debauchery, and methods of haring.  I will not go into markings and the like because the hares in our pack try and come up with something new all the time and listing all of our existing markings (checks for example) would take up a few pages.  The way we look at it, if a hasher volunteers to spend time on trail, it's"their baby" and they do as they please.  To prospective hares in our pack, my advice is to run a few times to get a feeling of what's going on and then volunteer to hare with someone with some experience.  That's the best way to learn.  Finally, pay attention to Chalktalk!  The hares will explain the method to their madness(what the markings are and what they mean!!)!  Take what you like from Chalktalks and when it's your turn to hare, let loose!!!  The following are just very general kinds and styles of haring.  I am in no way going to claim that I know about every kind of haring.  There's all kinds of variations.  That's what's great about hashing, be creative and make it fun for the pack!!   Generally (GENERALLY), we here in Europe favor the DEAD HARE. On a dead trail the hares (normally two) sometime during the week prior to the hash go out into any place where they can find grass and squirrels and from there scope out an area to lay a trail.  I have seen in my travels some hashes that actually have over the years run the same areas so often the hare will just say "run site #17".  That's not our taste here but it's out there.  On the morning of the run, the hares(usually extremely hungover!) will then go out to the trail area they have picked and lay the trail.  The rule of thumb isthat if you walk to set a dead hare trail cut your time when finished by half and that should give you a general idead of how long it should take the runners to complete the trail.  Of course this all depends on the checks and if there's beer stiops.  The trailmarkings are few and simple and flour is the marking material of choice.  Advantage: more social since the pack tends to be bunched together more due to holding checks and beer stops. Disadvantage: Waking up early to lay the trail and no "rush" in catching the hare (see below)!      Genaerally (GENERALLY), Okinawan hashes (Japan, Korea, many hashes in the U.S.) favor the LIVE HARE.  The number of hares are the same as is the ritual of finding a trail.  The difference is the lucky bastards get to sleep in later than their dead hare counterparts because they lay the trail as they are running.  The basic premise is that the hares get a head start(a time haggled to agreement the night before at the pub between hares and pack) and must lay the trail as they run.  When the head start expires, the pack of hounds is off to "snare the hare"!  Local traditions dictate punishment for caught hares but at S&MH3 it's de-pants'd and the run is over!   Don't be intimidated prospective hares because live hares are rarely caught and I've found personally that a smart live hare is better than a fast live hare!  Holding checks at S&MH3 are not allowed unless the hares want one (or the pack is thirsty!) and in that case they get another but shorter head start once the DFL shows up.   This is just a general guide to the two most common types of haring at S&MH3 and there are so many more out there.  There's the back hare, mystery hare, pubic hair.  You get the idea.  If you are a member of this pack and can come up with an original (or plagiarised!) method of haring, go for it!!! -Treehugger