The Creative Mischief SIG
Updated 30 June 1996.
You are the person to visit this page.
Our Charter
The Creative Mischief SIG was founded on the premise that Mensa is taking itself far too seriously. It was time we
let down our hair and had some fun. And so it is. Our primary vehicle is hoaxes, which are posted as signs at
Mensa gatherings and meetings. Invariably, these note the cancellation or addition of some non-existent event,
promulgate some whimsical warning, or offer some sort of silly service through a non-existent phone number. All
of our actual hoaxes carry a disclaimer in fine print at the bottom, since Mensans actually believe this stuff.
Our Leader

Mark Hutchenreuther (Hutch) has been in Mensa since 1982. They let him in based on his GRE scores. He was
Local Secretary (President) of the Channel Islands Mensa group of Sourthern California from 1991 through 1995.
When he lost his bid for Regional Vice Chairman of Region 9, his last act as LocSec was to appoint himself to the
open position of Editor of Channel M, the newsletter of Channel Islands Mensa. He has also been appointed to the
position of Mensa International Boutique Coordinator.
He earned BSME from Michigan Tech in 1970, and an MSEE from CalState Northridge in 1985, and is actually
licensed as a Mechical Engineer by the poor state of California. He recently took an early retirement after working
for 25 years for the Navy as a civilian, most recently as a Computer Software Engineer. Mensa keeps him from
going crazy, or so he claims.
A Brief History
It all began at the San Francisco AG in 1992. In only a few short years
we have grown and expanded, and now have a SIG history.
An Example of a Sign
Schroedinger's
Cat Sitting Service
Going out of town for an extended period of time? Tired of your neighbor or coworker forgetting to feed Fluffy as
promised? Don't trust the local pet-sitting services?
Try our national chain of over-qualified trained pet sitters, many world-reknowned physicists. Our rates are
reasonable and our service is absolutely the best around.
Call today! 1 (800) NOT-SURE
A List of Available Signs
I have uploaded a substantial collection of the Creative Mischief SIG signs (even the newest ones)
and several of my hoax articles in Rich Text Format to my public_html subdirectory in my home directory. I had
hoped to be able to set this up so you could FTP to RAIN and get the files, but it appears that is not as simple as I
had hoped. If you are using either Mosaic or Netscape to get here (and you must be) you have the ability to save
these files off onto a disk, and that is all you need.
The list of files available also includes some links to software that reads RTF format files if your software cannot
read that format.
Important Disclaimer
The Creative Mischief SIG is a special interest group (SIG) of American Mensa, Ltd. Opinions expressed herein
are the opinions of the authors, and not of American Mensa, Ltd., which has no opinions.
Basic Rules
Even mischief has to have rules.
How to Join the SIG
So you want to join this merry band of anarchists.
About Mensa
Mensa is an international society
in which the sole
requirement for qualification for membership is a score at or above the 98th percentile on any of a number of
standard IQ tests. Mensa is a not-for-profit organization whose main purpose is to serve as a means of
communication and assembly for its members. Qualifications for membership may be determined by tests
administered by Mensa, or by submission of properly certified prior evidence of qualification.
To receive a brochure on Mensa, including qualifying test scores, contact:
American Mensa, Ltd.
201 Main Street, Suite 1101
Fort Worth, TX 76102
(817) 332-2600
(817) 332-7299 FAX
(800) 66-MENSA to leave a message to get a brochure
Compuserve: 70107,2242
Internet: 70107.2242@compuserve.com
How I Did This
The documents were done with Word for Windows 6.0, then converted using the Ant converter. I had hoped to use
photos scanned by Seattle Film Works and converted to .GIF using their software, but it did not give me the
resolution and color I wanted, so I ended up scanning them myself as Windows bitmap files and then converted
them to .GIF files.
Hutch is Mark S. Hutchenreuther in real life, and in cyberspace he is:
hutch@rain.org on the Internet,
http://www.rain.org/~hutch/ on the World Wide Web,
and 71117,2107 on CompuServe.
Go to my home page.
Send me your comments.