Face-off: Two Falcon staff pairs battle for the pot of gold

To comply with our March centered life section, our life editors challenged two pairs of reporters to create leprechaun traps. With little to no restrictions on our creativity, the Falcon reporters created two vastly different contraptions.

The Leaping Leprechauns (Angela and Isabelle):

Our vision: a MTV worthy crib Leprechaun style, decorated in various hues of green and with a pot of gold as bait — only for the coolest of leprechauns.

To begin, we gathered our materials, which included a Prada shoebox, green construction paper, gold coins, green tissue paper, chopsticks, gold spray paint and a printed out rainbow for a dash of magic. We believed, since we were aiming to attract the highest class leprechaun out in the woods, that creating a lavish curtain entrance dipped in gold spray paint would lure in the best leprechaun.

We simulated a woodlands environment by delicately decorating the bottom of our trap with paper grass. Although we aimed for realism, it came out looking more like fake sushi grass.  

Because we wanted something out of a TLC house remodeling show, we decided to spray paint everything gold — even the chopsticks, which held the lid open. To decorate the top half of our trap, we collaged a variety of green construction paper for our hopefully artistic leprechaun audience.

Under the roof, we placed a pot of gold (also decorated with sushi grass) to entice our mischievous money-hungry fairies. To top it off, by writing “cool leprechauns only,” we emphasized that we preferred leprechauns to roll up in their Bentleys or motorcycles, smoking cigars with a cool leather jacket. We set our trap in Angela’s house because we knew the leprechauns would look for somewhere warm to stay the night.

Because we decorated our trap in gold, we deserve gold, too, for the competition (even though we didn’t catch any leprechauns).

And, that’s it for tonight on “MTV Leprechaun Cribs.”

Shamrock Shkers (Pranav and Kyle):

On paper, the plan was perfect. We met at SHS on the Monday of February break. The night before, each of us had spent a solid two hours researching how to build leprechaun traps on WikiHow, and we were ready to get to work.

The philosophy behind our trap was fairly simple. We knew we couldn’t use green because every other trap uses green. And the last time we checked, no green traps have successfully caught leprechauns.

No, our trap was going to be bigger, better, sexier — it was going to be hot pink.

So using bright pink paper, fake chocolate coins, a shoebox and a mousetrap, we laid the bait.

All told, building the trap took us two hours. Two hours for a shoebox wrapped in pink paper with a mousetrap inside. Oh, and some chocolate coins glued on the sides for decorations.

We then drove to Wildwood Park, a relatively secluded area near nature and mythical beasts, and left the trap in a clump of bushes. We would have left it on the lawn, but a hungry-looking small child was giving our chocolate the eye.

After we left Wildwood Park, we forgot about the trap for several days. The original plan was that one of us would go back and check each day in case we’d caught a leprechaun.

Except we forgot to do that. So, any leprechaun that we might have caught would have starved to death.

When we did remember, a week had passed. It was dark when we arrived at Wildwood Park, and an owl stared us down as we walked onto the damp grass. For several minutes we searched and found nothing. Then Pranav almost tripped over something and kicked the shoebox, torn and crumpled as it was, into the center of the grass.

The box was empty. Our chocolate coins were a bit stale but, surprisingly enough, still edible.  

Did we catch a leprechaun? No. If anything, we blame the timing. Peak leprechaun season comes in mid- to late March, not the middle of February when most of them are still hibernating.

But we did, in the process, build one incredibly beautiful trap — a trap which should easily win this competition because it was cheap, economical and deadly. And also hot pink. #PinkIsTheNewGreen.

The Verdict:

Falcon’s Lifestyles editors Claire Rhee and Olivia Lu judged the contest in favor of Angela and Isabelle’s house because Pranav and Kyle’s was destroyed. No doubt Pranav and Kyle will be protesting this.