Diary tidbits: Voting; Olin; Board Games

[jducoeur]

Thanks to everyone who went and voted in the state primary yesterday, especially the locals. The good guys did win, which will hopefully send at least a bit of a message. (Kathy McMenimen finally got lumped squarely into my "bad guys" list when, in her final flyers, she tried to make an issue out of the fact that Tom Stanley was being partly funded by gay rights groups. If she thinks that's a bad thing, then I want her far away from my legislature.)


The main activity of yesterday was the first meeting of the proto-borough at Olin College. My initial reaction was that the meeting was a bit small (about half a dozen people), but that changed later, as discussed below.

I think there's definite potential there. It's never going to be a big borough, but Myndroh has more clue than the average provost and there seem to be at least a couple of people there who really want to get involved. (Including yet another guy who really wants into heavy list. If the fighters make an effort, there's a lot of fresh enthusiasm in the boroughs that they could tap.) And the school appears to have really nice facilities, so it's possible that we might be able to bring some unusual activities there -- for example, he thinks we can probably get a field for archery, which would be cool.

After the meeting, he showed me around for a couple of minutes. He was showing the robotics lab, and I asked how many people they have coming in. He answered 75, much larger than I'd expected for such a specialized department, so I asked how big the student body was. "No, you're missing the point", he replied.

I'd been completely misled by those gorgeous facilities. 75 is the size of the incoming class. The school is brand-new (not through its first graduating class yet), so the total student body is only ~225 so far, and they're shooting for a sustained level of 300. Wow -- that's a lot of school per capita. So as a percentage of the school size, Olin might yet wind up having the largest borough. We'll see...


Got the latest issue of Board Games Studies in the mail. This is the academic journal on the history of board games, and is always interesting. In the latest issue, a cursory glance turns up:

• An examination of some unusual forms of log dice.


• A survey (including pictures) of a number of boards carved into the floors of a Renaissance Hindu temple. This is really neat, because it provides firmer period documentation for a number of eastern games that Salamallah has described, that I hadn't been sure of the provenance of. I think we're going to have to have an Indian event one of these years, just to play around in the culture.


• A description of some just-post-period variant rules for Game of the Goose, showing that Goose has always been subject to house rules. (Which is good, because there are one or two tweaks I want to make, to make the game more fun.) This article is in German, so I'm going to need to find a translator.


• An article talking about *some* sort of 16th century game I don't recognize, by Thierry DePaulis, in French. I'm certain it's interesting, but there isn't an English abstract, so I think I'll have to get msmemory to give me a summary.

Comments

[qedrakmar.livejournal.com]

Umm... would you be interested in getting me some contact information for these Olin people? You may know I've been trying to put together some ideas to form a college (probably far away, so I wouldn't even be stepping on their market), but some of the steps are well beyond me, and any help I can find would be wicked appreciated. I'm hoping with enough work in this I can turn my life's dream into a reality.

[jducoeur]

The new borough is being set up by jrising, so you might want to drop him a note.

Also, if you haven't done so already, you may want to take a look at The Provost's Handbook -- this is a bit Carolingia-centric, but has all of my tips on how one runs a college branch.

And I'm always happy to schmooze on the subject. I'm the Borough Liaison for Carolingia, and have spent much of the past 20 years working with a variety of college branches...

[jducoeur]

Wait -- you're talking about forming a college per se, not a college branch. Sorry -- I'm a little tunnel-visioned right now.

Yeah, talk to jrising; he's a teacher at the new school, and probably has some insights...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Hey, we could use one of those.

Of course, the link doesn't work. Whether that's a problem with the link or a problem with Simmons remains to be seen.

[jducoeur]

Hmm. The link *ought* to work -- it's working for me here. If it persists in not working, I can send you a copy, or something.

Oh, and remind me: siderea wrote a very good essay on related topics, which I should send you...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Predictably, it was entirely Simmons' fault.

I'm both curious and wary regarding the essay, but I might as well check it out.

[cheshyre]

If you're into board game history, have you ever heard Irving Finkel of the British Museum speak (or read anything he wrote). Board game history is one of his hobbies, and we saw a presentation he gave at the Boston Athenaeum a few years ago. Looks like the website took down their page on the talk (though they may have recorded it for loan), but he also was interviewed on the Connection, the audio of which is still available.

One comment which made an impression on me was about the history and popularity of the Royal Game of Ur in the East. Archaeologists have found boards carved into the ground in Indian palaces -- in places where only construction workers could've reached.
Cool stuff.

[jducoeur]

Curious -- I don't know him. I suppose his focus may be post-period (based on the slideshow), but I should see whether he has anything relevant up. (Among my sidelines is maintaining the Medieval and Renaissance Games Homepage, which is supposed to be comprehensive...)

[cheshyre]

Actually, I think it's more that his focus is more NearEast than European. He's also curator of their cuneiform collection.

He had this hysterical description of a cuneiform in their collection I'd love to see. Cuneiform was apparently taught thru tablets where the teacher wrote something on one side and students were supposed to copy it on the back. They have one tablet where the student has a few words (copied extremely poorly) and then this doodle of a person with their mouth open (presumably the teacher) yelling, with teeth flying everywhere.
Isn't it nice to know that human nature never changes?

Also, have you seen the new book Birth of the chess queen about how that chess piece developed? That might be more up your alley.

[jducoeur]

Interesting. I'm a bit automatically suspicious of books on period with a gender-studies focus (having suffered through one or two really dreadful ones), but I'll probably have to get this and see what it's like. Thanks for the pointer.

And I agree that, if his focus is on the Near East, that might go a ways towards explaining why I don't know him. I'll have to keep my eye open, though...

[mermaidlady]

I think we're going to have to have an Indian event one of these years, just to play around in the culture.

Just twist Lakshmi's arm, why don'tcha...

[jducoeur]

Twisting isn't my style. Insidious hinting, on the other hand...