There is only one day of the year where one can leave the drudgery of Caltech
academic
life and sprint off for a chili burger, chili dog, and chili fries in a timely
manner. A very
timely manner indeed... so timely that one can actually return before he
departs.

This is the way of the Negative-Time Tommy's run. On one day of the year, a
little bit
before the first 2 AM, Caltech students hope in their cars and make a dash for
the
originally Tommy's in Beverly Hills for some items with a lot of chili. The
goal is to simply
return before you left. If you are skilled, you may attempt the trifecta which
consists of
the burger with extra chili, the hot dog with extra chili, and the fries with
extra chili.

Last year, I missed achieving negative time because of an accident on Highway
101. Our
total time was 4 minutes. Of course, last year, I did achieve negative time
cubing at a time
of negative 59 minutes and 1 second. (I was not very fast back then.)

I challenge all of you to take part in the negative time solving tradition. We
will have a
website with the one, yes only ONE scramble which you will use for this entire
year. The
date I believe will be October 31, 2004.