Notre Dame's Rainbow

To find Mr. Fenn’s rainbow, one has to understand rainbows and understand Fenn and see where they intersect. I wrote a lot about rainbows in my book and created a key to unlocking the poem.

Some interesting facts about rainbows:

• They form at 42 degrees around the sun.

• Rainbows and pots of gold are synonymous with the Irish Leprechaun.

Leprechauns are mythical ferries of Irish folklore said to be a solitary creature, whose principal occupation is making and mending shoes, and who enjoys practical jokes. Prior to the 20th century they wore red, but after they wore green clothing. Mr. Fenn has used the word “sprinkles” which is synonymous with ferries and definitely not a word that is used by macho fighter jocks.

There appears to be some interesting similarities between leprechauns and Fenn, who has discussed shoes including “Cuddles” in need of mending from Scrapbook 130 and his wearing of odd hats.

There is an aberration in Fenn’s memoir where he spelled Bible as “bible” and used capitals to spell “Book of Days” which is a song by Irish singer Enya. Combine this with the leprechaun and Forrest's Irish Guinness beer commercial and Ireland becomes prominent.

In my Tarhe post, I was able to make some good headway with the Toledo and Nevada hint. Dal spent significant time on the Toledo “non-clue” but one thing that Forrest told him that stuck out was, “west” meant straight west like 270 degrees. Then Stephanie was struggling to understand the meaning behind how close Forrest said she was. What if the hint or the key to cracking the poem was physically 270 degrees west of Toledo and close to Stephanie’s home of Chicago? Could he be indicating somewhere “in the middle” between Peoria and Toledo?

Forrest quotes:

• “I’m not sure “admire” is the right word but if we twist it a little maybe we can make it work.

• "I tend to use some words that aren’t in the dictionary, and the others that are, I bend a little.

Forrest has used the words “bend” and “twist” in a lot in his conversations, so much that I feel he is hinting at something, but what?

There is a city near Chicago that is 270 degrees west but less than 300 miles from Toledo called South Bend, Indiana. Forrest has said, “Everyone has a little Indiana Jones in them,” but none of us were expecting Indiana to be a State. This town has a famous University that has produced some very good football players such as "Tim Brown" and "Joe Montana" called Notre Dame. Could the "Fighting Irish" football team be connected to Fenn's treasure? Or possible the names of some of those famous Notre Dame football players are pointing the way.

Forrest did joke (as he did with Toledo and Nevada) that the treasure chest wasn’t in eastern Saskatchewan, thus if my “joke’ theory is to work, I must find the link to “eastern Saskatchewan” as well. Sure enough, eastern Saskatchewan also has a college in Wilcox called Notre Dame that produces very good NHL calibre hockey players. Forrest has talked about sports many times, especially football in Dal's Scrapbooks: 100, 110, 142 and “The Big Persian.”

I’m originally from eastern Saskatchewan and it is world famous for only a few things: A TV series called Corner Gas staring comedian Brent Butt, they don't have daylight savings time and one of the most interesting medicine wheels in North America near Arcola.

Thank you once again who have given generously to cancer research. Your donations are making a difference.

In an up coming blog post, I will put it all together and attempt to make sense of these “non-clues” that will lead to unlocking the poem.

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