Mouse Trap Has Become a Life-Sized Attraction

Why would someone build a life-sized version of the well-known board game? To teach.

by Rich Watson 

Mouse Trap was one of my favorite board games for the process of creating the three-dimensional contraption while playing and watching it work. It’s a unique function of this clever game that continues to entertain.

So when I discovered there was a life-sized version that travels around the country, I had to learn about it.

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Scrabble Was Developed in a Church Basement in Queens

The world-famous word game began in this Queens church.

by Rich Watson 

For years, Scrabble has challenged millions of players with expansive vocabularies. Knowing not only what words to play, but where to play them is key to winning this mentally stimulating board game enjoyed worldwide.

It’s hard to believe it began in a church basement in Queens.

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The Military Connections to the Game Battleship

 

The popular board game and its initial manufacturer both had ties to real-life wars.

by Rich Watson 

Battleship was always fun. I had the game itself but I also remember playing a pen-and-paper version that worked similarly. It was good for when the teacher was absent and we goofed around in the back of the classroom while the substitute filled out delaney cards or whatever.

Given its military trappings, it should come as no surprise that its roots sprung during wartime.

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Dominoes: The Game and the Art of Toppling Them

Whether playing the game or toppling the game pieces, dominoes make for a fun diversion.

by Rich Watson 

The game of dominoes goes at least all the way back to thirteenth century China. Europe popularized it, in a different form, during the eighteenth century, especially France. Today it’s known and played all over the world. 

At one point it became popular to stand domino tiles up and knock them down, not as a game but as an activity. Called “domino toppling” or the “domino effect” or a “chain reaction,” people arrange thousands of them in elaborate patterns, sometimes with devices that help trigger the chain reaction, and watch them fall one by one.

How did that get started?

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