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May 27, 2004

First In-Store Events for GGG

On May 22 and 23, I held in-store game 'lessons' and audience challenges at Borders stores in Newark and Wilmington, Delaware. I was really happy that several high school and middle school kids came to the events and got into the games I taught them. Long live sociability and creativity...We shall overcome the X-Box yet!

Props to Paul at the Newark store, who was a terrific host and shows signs of championship potential in a game called Gravilex that I invented for the book. And the cafe staff at the Wilmington store was one of the smartest, friendliest crews I've met in quite some time -- they rocked at Hinky Pinky and were very enthusiastic about the book. If I lived closer, I would hang out at that cafe. Also at Newark, I taught the game Bongo to James Jariwala, an engineer and internet consultant. Talking about games and puzzles, I ended up recommending Mark Haddon's fresh, inventive and moving novel, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME, a tale narrated by an autistic 15-year-old...The book came up because it includes a discussion of "The Monty Hall Problem," a famous probability conundrum regarding the TV game show "Let's Make A Deal". Worth checking out, both the book and the Monty Hall Problem.

James Jariwala
http://www.jariwalaww.com

Mark Haddon and "The Curious Incident..."
http://www.powells.com/authors/haddon.html