Greebo's Bits
Created | Updated Jun 21, 2003
Pooh Sticks and the Internet.
What are/is Pooh Sticks, and what has it do with the Internet?
'Pooh Sticks' was invented by Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear with very little brain. Pooh, as we shall call him, made his first appearance on the printed page in a poem called 'Teddy Bear', which was written by A.A. Milne in 1923, and published in the magazine Punch.
In 1924 Teddy Bear, joined many other Milne poems and formed a book entitled, 'When We Were Very Young', which proved a huge success with young and adult readers alike. In 1926, the book of short stories called Winnie-The-Pooh was published, and that was followed, in 1928, by the book in which Pooh Sticks was invented; 'The House At Pooh Corner'. In this book, around about Chapter Six, you will find a story entitled, 'In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in'. The game is, of course, Pooh Sticks and, on a bridge; somewhere in Sussex, not far from Hartfield and Withyham, the game was played by Pooh and his friends... and is still played today.
So, you might say, what has Pooh Sticks to do with the Internet?
Virtual Pooh Sticks originated on the Pooh Mailing List which was what came before the alt.fan.pooh newsgroup. The VPS server written by Graham Simms tries to match the process of playing a game of pooh sticks as closely as possible. The server waits until there are 10 players waiting to play a game and then creates a 'stick' for each player. Each 'stick' consists of a uniquely tagged email message, all of which are dropped into the Internet simultaneously. All the 'sticks' are sent on a journey around the world, and should eventually arrive back at the server. The winner is the player whose stick arrives back first, any sticks that don't return within a certain time limit are declared lost.
To play, all you have to do is register with the VPS, by filling in your Full Name, a Username, a Password etc. You will also be asked what sort of stick you want to use, a description of said stick, how you want to throw it and where you will stand on the bridge. A good imagination is very useful at this point, as literally anything goes. I personally use a perfectly round jam doughnut, but animals, furniture, houses, breakfast cereal, oh... and the occasional stick... are just as appreciated. When you have filled in your details, you send them off and then wait for a confirmation E-Mail, when that arrives, you are ready to play. Have fun and enjoy.
Oppss... silly me, nearly forgot the LINK.
