How Pinball Became Legal Again

Did you know that pinball was illegal in major US cities from 1942 until 1976?

Early pinball machines didn't have flippers, so the player would bump and shake the machine itself to try to affect the ball's fall.  If the ball went into the right slot, the player could win free games, which some bars would redeem for cash. The game was, by and large, a game of chance and could have a cash prize, so it was considered "gambling". In the early 1940s, the United States was cracking down on gambling machines of all sorts. And lawmakers started to believe that pinball was mafia-run scam.

New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia wrote in a Supreme Court affidavit that the machines robbed the "pockets of schoolchildren in the form of nickels and dimes given them as lunch money". And then he outlawed the game in NYC. Police and politicians raided bars and bowling alleys smashing machines, arresting their owners, and throwing the machine's remains in the river, as public display of "morality". Many other cities followed with their own bans.

Through this time, the major pinball manufacturers continued to make games, since they were still legal for home use. During this time, the pinball companies improved the game, inventing flippers and incorporating multiple electronics into the playfield.

Then comes the best part of the story!

The Amusement & Music Operators Association lobbied to get a meeting with the City Council in a Manhattan courtroom to plead their case to get the ban overturned in May of 1976. They brought in a writer named Roger Sharpe to prove to the Council that pinball was no longer a game of chance. He was out to prove that it was undoubtedly a game of skill.

With the Council watching, Sharpe called his shot. He said that he could hit his next shot through the middle lane. He pulled the plunger, hit the ball with a flipper, and sure enough it went through the middle lane! City Council overturned the ban on the spot!

Some places still had illegal pinball on their books for years, but not many places followed through on enforcement. It was only within the past couple of years, for example, that Nashville, Tennessee, eliminated its ban on under-18-year-olds playing or standing within 10 feet of a pinball machine. It's still technically illegal on Sundays in Ocean City, Nevada.

Next time you throw a couple of quarters into a pinball machine while you're waiting for your friends at the bar, you can not only appreciate it's rich history, but you can be assured that it IS winnable! :)

[Sources: Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo]

Why Is A Marathon 26 Miles?

From the "Word Power" section of the April issue of Reader's Digest:

A marathon is 26 miles and 385 yards. The word and that oddly specific distance date back to the 490 BC battle of Marathon, Greece, in which the Greeks defeated the Persians. A messenger carried news of the victory to Athens across some 26 miles. Centuries later, in the 1896 Olympics, the footrace debuted and adopted the name marathon in honor of the runner.

Is anyone else wondering how long it took that messenger to carry the message? :)

Highest-Rated Televised Sporting Events

I learned something new at a trivia night yesterday!

In a listing of the Top 20 Most-Watched Sporting Events on Television in the United States, 19 are Super Bowls. But coming in at #4 is the 1994 Olympic Women's Figure Skating Competition. Do you remember why? Maybe these two will jog your memory:

Ah, yes.

Pearl Jam's "Ten"

Why does the band Pearl Jam have a 1991 album named Ten when there are 11 tracks on it?

Well, the members were big fans of the basketball player Mookie Blaylock, so much so in fact that they wanted to name the album after him. They had some intellectual property rights issues in doing that, so they decided just to name the album after his jersey number, 10.

Thanks to my friend Eli for the random trivia!

Cheerleading Ruled "Not A Sport"

... by Federal Judge Stefan Underhill.

This all began when Quinnipiac University in Hamden Connecticut decided to cut their women's volleyball team due to budget issues. Under the 1972 federal law, Title IX, male and female college athletes have to be given equal opportunities. So Quinnipiac, in order to comply with Title IX, told the female volleyball players that competitive cheerleading would be an acceptable alternative. A lawsuit followed, and Judge Underhill found several places where the University wasn't adhering to Title IX, but what got the most headlines was his ruling on cheerleading as a Title IX sport.

From the New York Daily News:

Underhill wrote that "the University's competitive cheerleading team does not qualify as a varsity sport for the purposes of Title IX and, therefore, its members may not be counted as athletic participants under the statute."

Under Title IX, an activity can be considered a sport if it meets certain criteria, namely that it has coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season, a governing organization, and competition as its primary goal — not just the support of other athletic teams, reports The Associated Press.

Of course, hard-working competitive cheerleaders from all walks of life are disgusted with the ruling. But based on Title IX's criteria, even though cheerleaders do compete, it's not typically their primary purpose. So at the end of the day, the judge was correct in saying it's not a Title IX sport.

Maybe due to this ruling, more college squads will choose to just compete and not cheer on the sidelines? Guess we'll wait and see!

All About Curling

Olympic week is almost over already! Hope you've learned some new stuff. :)

Since the Olympics are being held in Canada this year, it would be a shame to not learn something about Curling! I've been especially curious about it considering that at least one of the NBC affiliates has been airing every Curling match this Olympics!

How does Curling work?

Short Answer:

Two teams of four people take turns sliding granite stones down an icy lane towards a target painted on the path. Points are scored when a team gets one or more of these stones closer to the target than the other team's stones. Not only can the initial thrower of the stone make it slide in an arched path, but the other team members can alter the path and speed of the stone by sweeping the ice around it.

Each team slides eight of these stones, and once both teams have thrown all of their stones, it marks the end of a match. A game consists of 8-10 matches. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Like boccie ball on ice. :)

The Details:

Terminology*:

1. Stone: A thick polished granite disc weighing between 38 and 44 pounds, with a handle on top.

2. Running Surface: The part of the stone that makes contact with the ice. It's a narrow (0.25-0.5") ring (5" in diameter) attached to the bottom of the stone.

3. Curling Broom/Brush: Brush used to sweep the ice in the path of the thrown stone. Modern ones are made of fabric, or hog- or horse-hair bristles.

4. Off Foot: Shoes that have a Teflon sole, so they slide along the ice.

5. Hack Foot/Gripper Shoe: A non-sliding shoe, typically with a rubbery surface over the entirety or portions of the sole.

6. Curling Sheet: The iced lane.

7. House: The target, consisting of three concentric circles. There is one target on each end of the curling sheet.

8. Backboard: The extreme ends of the curling sheet.

9. Centre Line: Line drawn along the center of the lane, which goes through the center of the house.

10. Tee Line: A line perpendicular to the centre line that also goes through the center of the house. Each tee line is 16-feet away from each backboard.

11. Button: The absolute center of the house, at the intersection of the centre and tee lines.

12. Hog Line: A line 37-feet away from and parallel to each backboard.

13. Hacks: Two fixed, rubber-lined holes by each backboard. They give the thrower something to push off of when throwing the stones.

14. Throw/Delivery: To slide the stone down the curling sheet.

15. Skip: Teammate who determines the weight, turn, and line of the stone and communicates it to the sweepers.

16. Weight: The velocity of the sliding stone.

17. Turn: The rotation of the sliding stone.

18. Line: The direction of the throw, not taking into account the turn.

19. Thrower: The teammate who throws the stone.

20. Sweeper: The teammate/s who brush the ice in the stone's path to change its trajectory.

21. Draw: A throw that's just intended to get the stone close to the house.

22. Take-Out: When a stone knocks an opponent's stone out of the house.

23. Guard/Block: When a team places a stone in the path of the house.

24. Tap: When a stone hits another stone.

25. Burning A Stone: An infraction that occurs when the stone is accidentally touched by the sweepers, either with their broom or a body part.

26. Hammer: The advantage of being the team to throw the "last stone", usually determined by either a coin toss or a "draw-to-the-button" throw-off.

27. End: When both teams have played all of their stones.

Gameplay:

1. The first thing to do before the stone is thrown is to clean the running surface, so nothing can accidentally alter the stone's path.

2. The thrower delivers the stone from the hack. Due to the thrower's preference, s/he can choose to release the stone at any point (even if the thrower is still sliding with it), and to turn it however many degrees s/he wants. The thrower must release the stone, however, before s/he reaches the hog line.

3. The skip tells the sweepers what to do; brushing the ice can either make the stone travel farther or change the stones turn. The skip typically yell the line to the sweepers, and the sweepers communicate the weight back to the skip. The skip can be a thrower, a sweeper, or just a watcher.

4. Any teammate (besides the thrower) can sweep their team's stone until it reaches the tee line. After that, only one teammate may sweep (usually the skip), and one of the members of the opposing team can sweep that stone, too.

5. Each player on both teams throws the stones twice until the End is achieved. The teams take turns throwing the stones.

6. After both teams have thrown all of their stones, the team with the stone closest to the button wins that End. That team gets a point for every stone of theirs in the house that is closer to the button than the closest stone from the opposing team. After 8-10 Ends, whoever has the most points win.

The women of Sweden won the Gold in Curling at the 2010 Olympics

It may sound simple, but it's actually a game of intense strategy. Just the sweeping alone requires all sorts of strategy: from when to start sweeping, to the position of the sweepers, to the pressure and speed of the sweeping, and on and on.

Hope I helped clear it up for anyone interested. I definitely want to try it out sometime!

*There are many more curling terms in the Glossary of Curling!

(source)

Why Is A Biathlon Skiing & Shooting?

Anyone else wonder how the biathlon came to include just cross-country skiing and precision target shooting? Does that seem a little random?

Luckily biathlon.net answers those questions for us! The gist:

- The biathlon evolved from hunting and winter warfare.

- Hunting on skis began in ancient Rome, Greece, and China, as early as 400 BC.

- There have been historical writings about warriors on skis dated to the early first century AD. By the 1800s, many skiing regiments were active in Europe and Asia.

- Norway began regular shooting and skiing competitions in 1776.

- Germany began a similar competition called Military Patrol in 1902.

- Military Patrol was a demonstration sport in a handful of Olympic games before being incorporated as an official Olympic winter sport, called "the Biathlon", in 1960 in Squaw Valley, CA, USA.

- Women's Biathlon premiered at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games.

- The skiing distances, targets, and penalties have changed throughout the years, and are different for each biathlon event.

Here are the rules for the 2010 Olympic individual men's biathlon event:

• Men cross-country ski 20 km (~12.5 miles) over 5 laps, with their guns on their backs.
• They have to shoot 5 targets in between each lap, for a total of 4 times. They take turns shooting from a prone (on their belly) position to a standing position from lap to lap. The targets are 50 m away, and the target is about the size of a golf ball for the prone position and a grapefruit for the standing position.
• For each missed target, a penalty of 1 minute is added to their skiing time.
• Whoever completes the biathlon in the shortest amount of time wins.

- In the 2010 Winter Games, there are 10 different biathlon events, including individual, relay, sprint, pursuit, and mass start for each men and women.

Alright, I suppose it makes more sense now! I can see how it really pushes athletes because they not only have to have speed and endurance to complete the cross-country skiing portion, but also the control and precision for the target shooting. Cool.

Norway's Tora Berger won the gold for the women's individual biathlon at the 2010 Olympics.

Women's Ski Jump

As we learned on Monday, there is no women's ski jumping event in the Olympics. How is that possible?

According to a July, 2009, NPR story, a British Columbia Supreme Court justice ruled that allowing a men's ski jump event but not a women's constitutes discrimination. Unfortunately, the Canadian courts don't make the decisions about Olympic events, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does.

The IOC claims that gender has nothing to do with their decision not to include women's ski jump. They state that it's entirely technical. The NPR article says:

Those technical issues include the number of women ski jumping at an elite level and the number of countries competing in the sport. IOC officials have argued that too few women and countries compete to justify Olympic competition.

Apparently there aren't that many male ski jumpers either, but the sport is always included because of tradition (it is one of the oldest Winter Game sports).

Ironically, prior to the 2010 games, the world record holder for the ski jump was a woman! She's an American named Lindsey Van, and beat the record for any woman OR man. She even achieved that record on the exact same hill in Vancouver that the ski jump events are held on this year.

Olympians are still going to fight for the women's ski jump in the 2014 games, but we'll have to just wait and see.

Figure Skating vs. Ice Dancing

What's the difference between the Olympic sports of Pairs Figure Skating and Pairs Ice Dancing?

Well...

Pairs Figure Skating:

- It's inspired by singles skating, with "two skating as one".

- It became an Olympic Metal Sport in 1908.

- Couples can skate as far away from each other as they want, but their side-by-side skating should be in unison and in close proximity.

- Throw-jumps (where the man assists the lady in a jump) and side-by-side jumps (toe loops, salchows, lutzes, loops, flips, and axels) are incorporated.

- Lifts are categorized by the way the man initially lifts the lady over his head. They can include hip lifts, press lifts, axel lasso lifts, carry lifts, and twist lifts.

- Spins involve the two skaters holding each other while spinning around a common axis.

- The music may not contain sung lyrics.

- There are 2 components to the competition:

1. Short Program (skaters complete a list of required elements using their own choreography)

2. Long Program (skaters choose their own elements, each worth various point values, and perform them using their own choreography)

China's Xue & Hongbo, 2010 Olympic Gold Pairs Skating winners

Ice Dancing:

- It's inspired by ballroom dancing.

- It became an Olympic Metal Sport in 1976.

- Couples are not supposed to separate by more than 2 arm lengths.

- Throws and full jumps are not allowed. "Half" jumps are permitted.

- Lifts can be unique, but may not involve the man extending his hands above his head.

- Spins should be performed as a team, in a dance hold.

- The music may contain sung lyrics.

- There are 3 components to the competition:

1. Compulsory Dance (all the couples perform the same standard steps and holds)

2. Original Dance (skaters must perform to music with a designated tempo, but can choose their own choreography)

3. Free Dance (skaters choose their own tempos, themes, and choreography, but there are required elements such as step sequences, lifts, and spins)

Canada's Virtue & Moir, 2010 Olympic Gold Ice Dancing winners

Hope that helped clarify! :)

Bonus fact for Michigan fans:

A Detroiter [an illegal pair skating move] is performed by the man lifting the lady over his head, holding her parallel to the ice while he is in a two-foot spin. The hold is the most dangerous part of the spin because the man is supporting the lady only by her legs. This move is also performed in more dramatic and dangerous fashion with a one-handed hold.

(sources: Wikipedia, chinaview.cn, & cbc.ca)

Winter Olympic Events

It's Olympic Week here on Stuff I Just Learned!

We're starting off the series with some event trivia:

-- The 2010 Winter Olympics include 86 events within 15 different disciplines. (source)

-- Speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined (ski jumping & cross-country) have been competed at every Winter Olympics since the games began in 1924. (source)

-- Before 1924, figure skating and ice hockey were part of the Summer Olympics. (source)

-- The only Winter Game to be discontinued was Special Figures figure skating, which was a part of the 1908 Olympics. Special Figures involved tracing certain patterns on the ice with one skate. (source)

-- There have been a number of events that have been demonstrated (for entertainment) at various Winter Olympics, but have never been part of the official competition. These include:

a. Bandy (like field hockey on ice)

b. Ice Stock Sport (like curling with ice stocks instead of stones)

c. Military Patrol (the predecessor to the biathlon)

d. Ski Ballet (a choreographed routine of flips and jumps)

e. Dogsled Racing

f. Speed Skiing (skiing as quickly as possible - up to 125 mph! - on a straight slope)

g. Winter Pentathlon (cross-country skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, fencing, & horseback riding)

(source)

-- There were several events proposed to be a part of the 2010 Winter Games, but were turned down by the International Olympic Committee. These included:

a. Biathlon Mixed Relay

b. Mixed Doubles Curling

c. Team Alpine Skiing

d. Team Bobsled and Skeleton

e. Team Luge

f. Women's Ski Jumping (this was the most controversial, going all the way to the Supreme Court of British Columbia!)

(source)

-- One new event did get approved by the IOC and is premiering at the 2010 Winter Games: Ski-Cross. It's a four-skier race along a course with turns, banks, and jumps. (source)

Enjoy!

Michigan Wolverines

The state of Michigan has associated itself with the wolverine in many ways:

- One of Michigan's nicknames is "The Wolverine State".

- At different times, Detroit's baseball and football teams were called the "Wolverines".

- The University of Michigan's mascot is the Wolverine.

- The state animal is the Wolverine.

But, ironically, wolverines don't typically live in Michigan. As a matter of fact, there has only been one confirmed sighting of a wild wolverine in Michigan in the last 200 years (it was seen in the "thumb" in 2004)!

So what's the deal? How did Michigan get linked to the wolverine?

Here's the explanation from the official State of Michigan website:

Why is Michigan sometimes called "The Wolverine State"?

Michigan has long had an unofficial nickname: "The Wolverine State." However, evidence seems to show that if wolverines ever lived in Michigan, they would have been rare. We don't know exactly how the state got the nickname, but two stories attempt to explain it.

Some people believe that Ohioans gave Michigan the nickname around 1835 during a dispute over the Toledo strip, a piece of land along the border between Ohio and Michigan. Rumors in Ohio at the time described Michiganians as being as vicious and bloodthirsty as wolverines. This dispute became known as the Toledo War.

Another reason given for the nickname is a story that has Native Americans, during the 1830s, comparing Michigan settlers to wolverines. Some native people, according to this story, disliked the way settlers were taking the land because it made them think of how the gluttonous wolverine went after its food.

Well, there you have it. It's all about the reputation, I suppose! I wonder if most Michiganians or U of M students realize what being a "wolverine" actually implies. They seem like vicious little animals! Maybe that was the point? :)

Remote-Control Bowling Ball

The new RC900 remote-control bowling ball by 900 Global makes "I hope I break 100" a lot more realistic for us amateur bowlers!

Marketed to kids and people with physical limitations, I think this could also be a nice $1500 present for anyone who wishes their video games were a little more like "real life". :)

Bogeys, Birdies, and Eagles, Oh My!

Ever wonder why golf lingo appears to be so random? Well, maybe this will help:

Bogey: Scottish golfers, as far back as the 1500s, used to use this word as the standard score per hole. The Scots saw themselves as playing against an imaginary "bogey", or ghost (like the "boogie man"). The Scot would try to get the balls in the holes in less strokes than the bogey.

Par: In 1898, the rubber-centered golf ball was invented and could travel much farther than the old ball. Par, meaning "a common level" or "equality", was the word chosen to be the standard score when using the new balls. Par happened to be, on average, one stroke lower per hole than the bogey. Eventually the older balls were phased out and "bogey" became commonly known as one stroke over par.

Birdie and Eagle: Both of these words were slang terms for "excellent" in the late 19th century. When golf really became popular in the US in the 1920s, Birdie became known as "1 stroke under par" and Eagle became "2 strokes under par". Or, as I like to think of them, "excellent" and "most excellent", respectively.

There, now you'll know why you call it a bogey when you score 4 strokes on a 3-par hole on your next golf/mini-golf/disc golf outing. And that's pretty birdie if you ask me. :)

(Thanks to to author/word enthusiast Bill Bryson's book, The Mother Tongue, for the info! Check it out to learn more fun facts about English.)

How Much Does The Best Yankee Ticket Cost?

A ticket to a Yankees game in the section right behind home plate in their new stadium this season can cost in the upwards of $2600. Per seat. For a regular-season game.

It may include a dinner of some sort. It should include at least that (if not a night in a hotel, chauffeured limo ride to the stadium, an actual diamond, and a thoroughbred horse, too!).

But that's just my opinion. :)