Monday, Monday

[fflo]

yup

I just removed "holly" from my info page interests. A little overdue there, I reckon. Though perhaps not as overdue as I'd like to pretend.

Then I e-mailed the people at Playthings Past (where I got the "j" in vjsmom his Whee-Lo recently) about a toy/game I remembered, haven't seen lately, and couldn't figure out how to Google. Does this sound familiar to any of you? It was simple in design: two metal rods anchored about an inch apart on one end & suspended over a series of point-valued holes into which would drop a metal ball, further along for more points. The idea was that you'd carefully pull the bars apart ever so slightly so that the ball would start to fall between the rounded rods, then you'd bring them back together just enough that the momentum would keep the ball coming toward you, but not so much it'd fall. The base was usually made of wood, as I remember. The ball was a little smaller than a golf ball and a little bigger than the stock smallish superball generally sold in gumball-style vending machines.

Root-beer-smellin' pencil for anyone who can find it for me, since lovelikeyeast turned down the prize for her mathematical wizardry here a little while ago.

Comments

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I know just the game you mean, though I'm damned if I can remember what it's called. Although, I wonder if they'd have it in that little generic game section they have at Toys R Overpriced Us.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Toys R Overpriced Us (ha!) didn't even have Whee-Los. The bastahdz.

It actually used to be sold in the sort of catalogs/stores that had what you might think of as the forerunners of ---what's that store called, Brookstone? The establishment in malls that has gadgetry for guys, plus, like, massage chairs & such. Anyway, back in the day I'd peruse the offerings of catalogs a lot, and the same ones that'd have nice bocce balls and other yard-type games for adults like that would have toys like the toy in question. As I recall it, anyway.