This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.                             the guys: philogynist jaime tony - the gals:raymi raspil

        20061004   

Michael considered fate at 08:15   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment
A friend of mine bought a checker board from a pawn shop the other day. I had to admire her thrift because not only did she buy the board used, she stole the checkers themselves! Granted, the board came with only single-sheet instructions so it is almost justifiable.

The board, purchased in Montreal, Quebec, had clearly been around for some time but it wasn't obvious whether the wording was translated or originally english. The faded cardboard box that the board came in did proclaim the game to be called "Dames!" suggesting that perhaps some french mid-seventies feminist were trying to ingratiate not only gender-equality into the hearts and minds of young gals but problem-solving as well? Go grandma1.

But it was the sentences themselves, the grammar and word choice, that truly struck me. It hinted of eastern ways, asian thought, not français. As checkers probably originated in India or there abouts (and, in fact, homer even mentions them in the Odssey, this wouldn't be surprising. What is interesting is that almost every sentence of the instructions could have stood on its own as a proverb of sorts. Step back, move your mind into abstract thought, and then proceed to a few examples:

  • A king may capture moving forward or backwards, it does not matter.

  • A man may only move diagonally forward, never straight ahead.

  • Only when a man jumps over another man can he capture him.

  • If a man is in a position to jump another man he is obligated to do so.
[1] They still referred to the pieces as "men" and the doubling, or "knighting", of pieces as "being kinged", thereby retaining some masculinity. Perhaps the instructions weren't the original set that came with that board.


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