The Word On The Street is… Junior!

Gee, another Out-Of-The-Box game! It’s almost like we have a lot of those in our house… Word On The Street Junior — surprise! — a word game. And, more than that, it’s on a street! That would make sense, given the name, right? Well, it’s true. The board is a five lane street (Honestly folks, can’t you choose an even number like a normal street? Jeez.) with the entire alphabet up the middle. Oh, wait! The middle is green, so it’s probably the grass divider between the two directions of traffic. But then the letters are… Yikes! Yes, kids, drive perpendicular to the street and across the dividers. Good plan. Word on the Street Junior

The players divide themselves into two teams and sit on opposite sides of the street. At the beginning, everyone decides whether it will be a green game or a blue game (easy or hard). The cards are shuffled and then set to have either the green or blue side facing out from the little card holder that just barely covers the questions (so you can’t cheat).

One team flips the timer while the other pulls a card. The card has a category (like “A Month” or “Something Blue.”) The team with the card has until the timer runs out to confer and choose something of that category. It must be one word (proper nouns are allowed, obviously, otherwise “A Month” would be pretty hard criteria to meet) and in English (no smart translations, sorry!), and the whole team must agree on it.

When the team has decided, they go through, spelling the word, moving each letter tile in the word one space closer to their side of the board. Once they move the third time in that direction and off the board, they have been captured and can no longer be moved. Whenever that letter is used in a word, it is simply noted as out of play and they spell the rest of the word. This is partially because the game would be incredibly difficult to play once the main letters (especially the vowels) had been used if you couldn’t use words with letters that had been captured, and the game would be over far too quickly.

For similar reasons, the board is five lanes instead of one or three, to allow the space for the players to give and take with the pieces, pulling it to the brink, then having it pulled back to the center, then slightly one way, then further the other, and so on. It’s quite amusing to watch the pieces move back and forth, and adds a strategy level to the game: it isn’t just about long words, it’s about finding the words with the letters on either edge to steal theirs and capture yours.

I think it would be fun to just play through everything and count up at the end, but that gets hard when the only letters left on the board are Q, U, W, V, Y, X and Z, in any combination thereof. So instead, the goal of the game is to have captured at least eight letters. The first team to do so wins.

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Fleeing the Complex

Well, I’m not just talking about Fleeing the Complex. I’m also talking about Infiltrating the Airship, Stealing the Diamond, Escaping the Prison, and Breaking the Bank. But the website is called Fleeing the Complex. I wouldn’t count Breaking the Bank, but it’s referenced in Infiltrating the Airship and in Escaping the Prison, and stars Henry Stickman, so I will.

Each game has a plot, choices to make, crazy reactions to those choices that make no sense, hilarious effects, numerous references (“‘You’re a bender, Harry.’ -Gandalf.”) and epic fails. Breaking the Bank doesn’t have much of a plot on its own, but the rest have an intro and extensive inter-weaving of events meant to make it as enjoyable as possible. I would love to give more examples, but that would spoil the fun!

Perhaps my one complaint with these is that the timeline is confusing. Infiltrating the Airship referenced Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, and Breaking the Bank, Escaping the Prison made a reference to the teleporter’s previous uses and also made it clear that it came after Breaking the Bank, and Fleeing the Complex mentioned the character Charlie, who Henry met in Infiltrating the Airship. By this, I’d guess that it goes Breaking the Bank, Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, Infiltrating the Airship, and then Fleeing the Complex. I confirmed this by going to the Henry Stickman Wiki. I guess I didn’t need to do a complicated tangle of deduction? Oh well, it was good practice.

Anyways, these games are madcap silly and loads of fun. One of the reasons they’re so great is that each game has multiple endings, and, with the exception of Breaking the Bank, several ways to win, each with its own label. For example, Stealing the Diamond has three endings: The Aggressive Ending, The Epic Ending, and The Undetected Ending.

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Ranting About Compasses

No, I have nothing against navigational compasses. They’re just fine. What I do have an issue with are geometric compasses. That’s right, the ones that you use to make the circles but sticking the point in the paper and swing the pencil part around that point. But what have I got against them?

To be clear, I have no issue with their use to draw circles. That makes sense. Actually, it’s the only way I know of to draw a decent circle (eyeballing it doesn’t end well for me). It’s the other geometric stuff it’s used for that irks me.

We’ve been told that, back in the day, mathematicians used only a compass and a straightedge to draw their shapes. That’s all well and good, but why do we still have to draw squares, hexagons and triangles from this object that only draws circles? It takes several, complicated steps and is quite frankly obsolete in the face of these things called rulers and protractors that allow us to actually measure our angles and lines in a timely fashion.

“Well, that’s just how they used to do it back in the day.” This I understand, and I’m fine with being taught how they did their math. I just don’t want to be expected to do it that way when there are other, more efficient methods. I am, as well as a writer, an inventor, and our goal is frequently to reach the intended goal with as little work as possible.

What do you think? Is there some benefit to the compass method that I’ve overlooked? Or do you concur with my frustration?

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Rhett And Link

Who? Rhett and Link are YouTubers. They’re best known for the daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning, where they either learn about, or, more often, try different things, mostly food. They frequently try foods blindfolded or just without being told what they’re eating and then have to guess what it is. Some examples are Whole Foods vs. 99 Cent StoreBlind Fast Food Sub Sandwich Taste Test, The Blind Chicken Nugget Taste Test, and, one of my favorites, The Ultimate Water Taste Test.

They do “International” taste tests (International BBQ Taste Test here) where they taste something from one of the countries highlighted on their map, and then not only have to guess where it’s from, but throw a dart at that place on the map. The darts are scored on how close they are to the correct answer, and the player with the lowest score wins (like golf).

Other times, they’re testing assorted “Hacks” (Crazy Airplane Cocktail Hacks). Sometimes they have guests on the show, such as Feel & Squeal Challenge ft. Hank GreenThe What If? Game ft. Daniel RadcliffeDuo or Don’t-O ft. SMOSH, and Christmas Song Challenge ft. Jack Black.

Not only do they have a talk show, they also do skits and music videos! Some skits are The Puzzle, BFF’s, and Campin’. Their music videos include My OCD, the Graduation Song, BFF (not to be confused with the skit BFF‘s), Tough Decisions (A Whale Is Gonna Die), and Just Being Honest, just to name a few. They’ve also started a thing called SongBiscuits where they write a song with a fellow musician and then perform it. One of my favorites of these is the Cat’s 9 Lives Song. You can find the video where they write and perform it here and the animated song here.

As great as their talk show is, I prefer their music, mostly for timing, since their show is usually somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes, whereas their songs seem to cap at 5. But whichever you’re watching, they’re still light-hearted and silly.

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Cobra Paw

Cobra Paw? Sounds interesting. What’s it about? Snakes? Wait, snakes don’t have paws. Mutant snakes? No, but that could be an amusing game. Cobra Paw is about ninja cats snatching up stones. Why? Long story. It’s in the rules, if you want to know. Cobra Paw: Ninja-like know how steals the game!

You place all the stones in the center of the arena (table or designated patch of floor.) The combatant with the smallest paws rolls the Catnippon Dice first. When the dice are rolled all players must attempt to find the stone with the matching pair of symbols. The first to “snatch” it gets it. Snatching is done by placing your finger/s on the stone. If there’s a tie, whoever’s finger is closest to the divot in the center gets it. If the stone rolled has already been snatched from the pool, you may snatch it from the player who has it. The goal is to have 6 stones, or 8 if it’s a 2-player game.

The rule booklet is one of the funniest parts of this game, because of the way the rules are stated. Tournament essentials are “21 Clawfuku Stones, 2 Catnippon Dice, and the will to compete.” Because obviously, you have to want to play to play. Other rules have additions to explain them, like, “Bickering over who touched a stone first makes Master Meow very sad,” or the constant justification of certain rules by codes of honor, such as “It is considered shameful to cover the stone with one’s paw.” My favorite is the very last rule: “Competitors who continue to play dishonorably may be forbidden from the Cobra Paw tournament and may even be cast into the Litter Box of Shame!”

This game also has three variations from the original, Ghosts of the Fallen, No Touchy and Two Ninja Stand-Off, but I won’t explain them here, since I haven’t played them yet.

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