h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rover <<

That's it! And complete with rules! If the person breaks thru
the chain he takes the two, whose hands could not hold him, back
to his side. If he fails, he joins the successful defenders. The
winning team is the one to end up with the most players.
And I can see how it does have similarities to the variations of
'bulldog' described in Wiki and how the names got confused.
Thanks Rod.


As for girls being allowed to play, WS, your school was quite right
to protect you all from such rough-housing and horse-play. Though
I do have vague memories of young girls playing at least until they
reach the age where soft young bosoms gave them a psychological
advantage against hands forbidden to touch such things. The game
seemed most popular at about the age of puberty and for many it
was their last encounter with a 'contact' sport unless they had the
skills, physique and stamina for the more organised and competitive
intramural sports like hockey, football, marriage, etc.


~jwf~

The boys at my school played British Bulldog in the Gym on rainy days in a games period (as opposed to PE).

I recall that it involved a basket ball and the year group split into two teams. The object was to crash through the opposition lines, keeping the ball in play and score by getting into their goal area with the ball and shouting 'British Bulldog 1,2,3'.

I also recall that there were few rules and no holds barred. It built character and teamwork, don't ya know!

There was an alternative called Pirates which involved all the Gym equipment attached to the walls and ceiling as well as benches, vaulting horse etc. The object in this game was to avoid being 'captured' by the pirates (a team of about 10) and it was all the better for being a 3 dimensional game of strategy and skill.

t,Happy New Year.

Rugby (sort of) in the small gym, with a medicine ball and both teams wearing the same shirts...believe it or not, some of us survived.

We played this (non-linking version) in primary school in Dublin in the 1950s -- in the boys' yard, which says it all.

We called it Cockarosy.

Though I've known that word almost sixty years, I've never seen it written down. I just googled it and it is not quite a googlewhack -- two results came up, one bing a band and the other (apparently) this game, in

Additions to "The Games of Argyleshire" (Continued)
R. C. MacLagan
Folklore
Vol. 17, No. 1 (Mar. 25, 1906), pp. 93-106

Unfortunately I can't see the relevant page as it comes up in Jstor and my institution library (Dublin Institute of Technology) doesn't seem to have full access to Jstor, only the Irish and Music collections.

I remember the game British Bulldog, but don't remember playing it or any of the rules. It may have been one played predominantly by boys, while we were busy playing grandmother's footsteps or French skipping.

>>..French skipping. <<

May I ask you to expand on that one.

And if anyone wants to try explaining 'hop scotch' we can add
them to British Bulldog and create a complete reference list
of national games and sports.

Some other possibilities:
Chinese checkers
Russian roulette
Mexican standoff


~jwf~

Russian roulette
Mexican standoff

Those are easy.

Russian roulette - a revolver with only one cartridge in the cylinder. You spin the cylinder so no one knows where it is and take turns putting it to your head. An even worse idea to do that with a Kalashnikov.

Mexican standoff - revolvers again. Aimed at each other and both guns cocked. Describes a situation of "even if I shoot first he´ll have time enough to get me too".

The epitome of the Mexican Standoff...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1123674342024

t.

Hm - if you're really interested, French skipping involved a long piece of knicker elastic (about 3-4 yards) which was tied into a loop and two girls stood about 5 feet apart from each other, facing each other, with their legs about a foot apart. The elastic loop was stretched round them, first at ankle height, then knee height, then thigh height.

The other girls took turns at performing a comlpicated series of jumps and turns, e.g. jumping first on to one long side of the rectangle of elastic thus formed, then on to the other, then turning and jumping with one foot on each side. Each girl had a go at each height. If you missed the elastic or tripped, you were out, but it wasn't really a game or a competition, it was like practising dance steps. By the time the girls at the end had the elastic up round their bottoms, it was really hard. I was probably glad when the bell went if I was still in the game at that point.

It was probably called "French" skipping because of the 50's fashion of calling anything slightly different from the usual way of doing things, or anything vaguely exotic, "French" - such as "French doors" "French windows" "French mustard". The French probably had nothing of the sort. In fact, I can imagine that that type of game evolved in Holland or Belgium rather than France, but that's entirely speculation on my part. Little girls the world over like the same sort of thing, I suppose.

In Germany that was called Gummi (rubber) Twist - iirc it was banned in some schools because girls could hurt themselves when the rubber got higher.

In Dublin in the 1960s, we played the game you describe, ~jwf~, but called it Red Rover. We also played a different game called "Bulldogs", but I can't remember the exact rules. I remember that one person shouted "Bulldogs charge" or "Bulldogs hop" or even "Bulldogs spiderwalk" and the team had to do the appropriate action while being pursued by the other team.

>> Hm - if you're really interested, French skipping involved a long piece of knicker elastic...<<



>> By the time the girls at the end had the elastic up round their bottoms, it was really hard. <<

I can well imagine.

~jwf~

Just in case any of you are looking for something else
to think about beside the current ongoing cockup of the
new blue hootoo, I could use a hand with an idea I have.

The English language, generally, not just British English
needs a word for that time when old friends or old lovers
find they have nothing to say and nothing needs to be said.

It's a magic moment, it can't be feigned. It involves trust,
comfort, love, understanding, silence, peace and (please
feel free to fill in any blanks).

Has there ever been a word to name it, or even describe it
satisfactorily? As far as I am aware in my current state of
hootoobloos the answer is no.

So in the spirit of exploration and wondrous and unpredictable
adventure that always entails, may I ask you all to consider
offering your suggestions for such a word. Or, god forbid,
just remind me of the word that has slipped thru the cracks
of my shattered mind.


~jwf~

It´s a sort of shared inner peace, isn´t it?

Liminal?

Blankout

Wow! I posted that from H2G2, not dna. Up to today, all my new blue posts were refused on the grounds of offensive language

Back on thread . . . my father used to tell with great affection the story of how he asked his father-in-law for my mother's hand. He visited the parents' house and after dinner the mother ushered them into the sitting room or study or whatever room my grandfather sat about in, and they spent half an hour by the fire not exchanging a single word. At the end of the half-hour my grandmother bustled in and said 'I'm sure you've had a lot to talk about' at which they both smiled and continued their agreeable silence.

I never quite shared my Dad's pride, though. Now in my crabbed age I tend to suspect that they were conniving in depriving her of a juicy listen-in outside the door.

[Edit: This posting, however, I have had to put through dna, as the first attempt was denounced for immoderate language]

Probably the smiley caused the problem, Recumbentman.

A word for the non-verbal phase in a married couple's relationship...

pregnant silence?





(boom, boom)