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

Entry: Mornington Crescent - the Game - A3737838
Author: Danny B. [Musicians' Guild (U150368)] - U182633

Hmm... Does this fit the Writing Guidelines? Should I remove the section on 'The Truth'? Should I list another 1,455 variations?

Given the enormous amount of conflicting information on Mornington Crescent available on the web, I thought the best option was to stick to official sources: 'The Little Book of Mornington Crescent' and the 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' website.

And the answer to the last of the questions above is 'no', so please don't list them in this conversation!

I think it's fine as it stands. The links are good - and I'm glad to see the last one.

(Frankly the guy's right. It's boring anywhere other than ISIHAC)

Thanks, Edward!

(And I'm inclined to agree with you, but I'm not saying that out loud...)

know you wrote this for the guide to London Underground, but you've set me thinking about other games (like 2 up, 2 down) which rely on a group of people knowing what's going on, with so more sods that don't trying to work it out.

Ah! I like this article - useful and fun. It's been frustrating for me to play Mornington Crescent since I've been stuck for years in the same game, which seems to have stalemated at a terrible conundrum of North American rules that involve confusion over liquid ounces vs. ounces of weight measurement (an obvious problem with the "Pounds for Pence" famous allowance of 1983 that changed forever the means to get from London to NYC and back), and quantum mechanics. For example, I have been trapped in NYC's subway system at Flushing (I'm not sure which one, either, thanks to the Pauli Exclusion Principle - Special Interpretion of 1951) and simply bounce along between Houston St and South Ferry with only brief excursions to one of the Flushing Ave's allowed between blocking moves of the other players. With the folks I'm playing against, I don't stand a chance of ever returning to Europe, let alone the London underground, without at least some new ruling on the 1812 Interpretation or a repeal of NAFTA. My only hope now lies with the possibilities of new interpretations resulting from M-theory and the 11th dimension allowing me to circumvent the Pauli Exclusion principle and, theoretically, use Executive Order 11592 to appear, suddenly, at Shepherd's Bush, leaving everyone else stuck in NYC to wonder what the hell just happened.

At the risk of spoiling the fun through association of a personal experience, there are examples of these sorts of games existing outside of the UK, in somewhat unexpected places. Viz, some friends of mine insisted for years that their game of chun (pronounced more or less how I spelt it as I don't know how to write it, it being a vulgar Navajo word for sh*t, as I eventually discovered) is something that has defined rules. Eventually it was revealed that my long-standing suspicion was true, it that it is in fact a game invented by my fellow construction site laborers to make me, the so-called "college boy" and resident white, non-Hispanic kid at the site at the time, to do the dirtiest work. The game is something like a memorization of numbers and patterns game, and went something like a combination of blackjack and poker, but without any cards or, apparently, rules that would benefit me whatsoever. Ever play cribbage blindfolded with people who can see? Something like that.

It's embarrassing to admit how long it took me to figure out the true nature of the game. But at least it allowed me to immediately enjoy, if not partake, in some Mornington Crescent games.

- JD

Double.

Lovely

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York Way.