Tsuro is one of our "gateway" games - the game we pull out to entice non-gamers to play board games with us. "The first one is free...", we totally do not say. I've never heard that the tokens were supposed to be dragons flying - is that actually in the rules, or is it an embellishment you added? Also, as I said over at youtube, I like to play Tsuro "blind", with my cards face down until I have to place them - this appeals, I think, to the over all zen/taoist elements of the game.

Wil, I gotta say, I'm loving Tabletop. I've been watching with my 9 year old, she loves it too. Just great stuff.

Damn, that sounds like a good session. Wonder when I can get together with my old group?

Part of what makes cooking magic (and I truly believe that cooking is magic) is the process of it. Neither of us are above using convenient shortcuts when needed, but roasting a pumpkin is worth the effort - the coarser texture, certainly, but also the process. Can you get the same effect with 3 candles and 10cc of mouse blood? Sure, but you lose the ambiance. Anyway, pies and cheesecakes are not my end of the kitchen; if my wife wants to cook the pumpkin herself first, I'm not going to stand in her way.

Well, now I want to try KLP w/o meringue. I have, upon some discussion, discovered that the mysterious ginger snaps are being saved to be the crust of a pumpkin cheesecake. The cookies are from around Christmas last year, they're homemade. Such a creation demanded real pumpkin, not from a can, which could not be had last year. Now that pumpkin season has returned, they will probably get used. Mmmmmm.

I may have given a false impression - I agree that Jesu didn't cause chaos and disorder, but she often seemed to be in the middle of it. She was (and, I imagine, still is) eloquent, even when she was swearing at someone, but she would NEVER back down, and ALWAYS escalated. She was nothing at all like Scott, who would drop in periodically, fire off some sort of vaguely coherent libertarian screed, and then go away. (Except, he used to contribute meaningfully to the LB discussions. And then he stopped.)

Lunch Meat - my students are reading this for class next Friday, and it may be pertinent to your situation: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/savioendofhistory.html

In re: when I started reading - I seem to recall that I started either just before or just after the LB reviews began - in the darkish ages of Scott and Jesugislac. I was once flamed by Jesu for attempting to explain what I thought si was trying to say. re: fredbot hats How about a laurel-wreath-looking thingy? I have pictures of Fred actually wearing one, so at least it would be canonical... A laurel-wreath-looking thingy on a beanie? That has potential, actually. With or without propeller? And, of course, Fred would wear the laurel-wreath-looking thingy sans beanie, to indicate his position as leader of the fredbots. I'd ask the community to vote on this, but that would not be in keeping with the nature of fredbots, I fear. Also, note, I have signed in again - but I believe that all earlier posts by me are actually by me.

Thanks Lori! And Happy Columbus Day to you as well. I'm celebrating by driving home from Virginia. re: wikipedia - I echo the professorial view that says its a valid place to begin research, but it should not be a dominant source in any scholarly paper. I think that people somehow forget that it is an encyclopedia because it happens to be online - you wouldn't cite Encyclopedia Britannica or Colliers or whathaveyou in a paper (after, say, 3rd grade), so you shouldn't cite Wikipedia either. You certainly shouldn't copy and paste the Wikipedia article into your paper and turn it in, with the links intact, and expect me not to notice... (and to then complain because you failed the course. You definitely should not do that.)

So, this is kinda sad - this is actually my first response to the blog, and I'm talking about socks. Here's the thing - don't do it! It's a trap! Some five years ago, my wife and I bought all matching socks - all black - and it doesn't actually save ANY time in matching, because the damn socks STILL don't match, because they wear out at different rates and turn grey at different rates. And when the first batch of socks starts to wear out, you can't find new socks that match the PATTERN of the first batch of socks. And then, you find that you need BROWN socks to wear with a suit, or someone gives you a pair of fancy socks that you love, and you're right back where you started, matching the damn socks. Only, you know, it's double bad, because you've got the whole, "I had this brilliant plan once, but it totally failed" complex hanging over the whole experience. The only thing worse is hanging socks out on a line. I hate that. What I don't hate is this blog. So, yeah, keep posting about socks and video games and your brain and stuff. Right.