COOPERSTOWN—James Andrews Melrose Johnston, Jamie to family and friends, crossed the bar on November 14, 2022, following a prolonged battle with multiple ailments. He was 68.
Born on December 20, 1953, in New Haven, Connecticut, into a family of educators, naturalists, poets, historians, sailors and adventurers, Jamie never missed an opportunity to gleefully embrace novel experiences, such as when, as a toddler, he astonished his mother when she removed his rain hat in a New Haven store only to find a mouse cheerfully nestling in his hair.
By MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Puzzlemaster Kristian House of Oneonta throws ten thousand dollars in Monopoly money around the living room. House won the same amount of real dollars last week when he solved a national treasure hunt, following clues he decoded to a hidden spot in Nampa, Idaho. (Mike Forster Rothbart/AllOTSEGO.com)
Kristian House, proprietor of Oneonta’s former Monkey Barrel Toys, loves puzzles.
In fact, he’s found a way to make a living by solving them. In the decade since he moved back to the county, he’s earned income as a toy store owner, math teacher and writer of crosswords and math problems.
(His crosswords show up in newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; the math questions appear in textbooks).
Now House has a new claim to add to his list: treasure hunt winner.
