Ten-four plus two

Sometimes, my brain gets distracted by internal number games. Probably that's one of the reasons I like playing Sudoku. 

But the other night as I was falling asleep, it struck me that the day's date, October 4th, 'translated' as 'ten-four,' a phrase I've heard on too many cop shows (think: the classic Highway Patrol for one).

So yesterday (10/5), I thought I'd start poking around to check out the meaning of ten-four. And sure enough, it not only translates as 'okay' or 'all right' it turned up as an answer to a clue in that day's New York Times Crossword, another of my almost-daily addictions. There it was, 31-across: "Understood" and indeed, the answer, strung across seven blank squares required filling in T-E-N-F-O-U-R. Which means that I got at least one of their brain-teaser clues answered correctly. 

I took that as confirmation that I needed to look up what ten-four really meant, and found (who knew) that there's a whole list of 'ten-' codes with today's date (10/6) meaning as 'busy' (which it was). 

A further trip down the rabbit hole of the Internet informed me that October 4th is indeed ten-four day, and a special day for saluting radio operators, though I'm not sure how many of those there are anymore. 

I figured before I tried figuring out codes for the whole month, this would be a good way to end the week--especially where this is the long weekend when we celebrate Thanksgiving. I know that I have much to be thankful for, in particular, the bounty of this season's harvest. I certainly hope that you have much to be grateful for too. And to that, for now, I can only say 'ten-four'. 

Diversionary tactics

Maybe it's just one of the perils of summer, but I've not been getting as much work done as I mean to. The problem? Falling prey to too many diversions.

Some of these are reasonable, and go along with the season. Keeping up with the garden, whether that's watering or pruning or trying to deadhead lettuces before they bolt into flower (though those are yummy too). And there's been plenty of berries bought or even picked (27 pounds of raspberries), and processed into jams packed into the freezer for winter treats.

Other of these diversions are less productive. As the finals of the World Cup draw nearer, the call of the television gets harder to ignore.

And oh dear, witness the jigsaw puzzle above. Sure, I assembled it in between rounds of dealing with the actual strawberries, but it wasn't a very fruitful way to spend the time.

And that missing piece from the middle of the picture. I wonder whether that nagging bit of unfinished business should serve to remind me that, even though it's summer, I can't fall into too many bad habits. Projects still need to be completed. Deadlines still need to be met.

Oh, but where it's greyish and drizzly this morning, maybe I can get away with just one more day of frittering.

There's no iron in irony

And now there's no iron in the Monopoly set. The little metal token has been removed by a forum on that most faceless of juries, Facebook.

What has been lost seems more than just a piece of metal (or, as is likely in some of the newer sets, plastic). It's the loss of a piece that was in the illustrations for the game's official patent in 1935. Of course, as so often seems to be the case, a version of the game had already been around for several decades -- one that had been invented by a woman. Still, the game most of us know goes back to that one invented in the depths of the Great Depression and served as a pastime for dreamers, with visions of getting rich.

Although there are websites refuting the idea that the Monopoly tokens might have had any particular significance, I can't help but think they probably did. The thimble? Dressmakers and tailors. The cannon/artillery, the military. The hat? Since it's the same as the one on the head of Mr Monopoly, the character associated with the game, let's say that personifies the entrepreneur. The ship? Transportation. The shoe? This one's probably the trickiest. Athletes didn't yet get anything like today's big bucks, so that was hardly one of the main streams of employment. My guess is it might have been a good stand-in for those in sales. During the Depression, they must have gone through many a pair of shoes.

But back to the humble handiron. Surely, it stands for the realm of the domestic. The world of steady work that goes on in the home -- work for mostly no pay. Could that be why it's undervalued enough to now be voted out of the mix?

Yes, other tokens have changed over the years. There've been race cars, with and without driver inside. Rocking horse, rising horse (a la Roy Rogers' Trigger), lantern and purse. Oh yes, the little Scotty dog. Again, another connection to Mr Monopoly -- supposedly his dog.

And now, we get a cat. Hmm. I am stumped as to what significance this might bring. Don't get me wrong, I love kitties as much as anyone. I just don't see them as representative of any occupation. Hunters? Sleepers? Royalty? Perhaps. Or maybe the all-too-many who are under- or un-employed.

Maybe this is more than just a loss of trinket that served as token in a board game. Maybe it says something -- not about losing a sense of irony (that's supposedly been dead for years now) -- but about losing a sense of the meanings behind things, about losing a sense of symbol. And considering that symbol is the basis of art and even language, that's not a loss to take lightly.

PS The delightful fence of antiques in the photo has since been replaced by a boringly white picket one. And as far as I know, they didn't even take a poll on Facebook.

Popomatic fun

If you recognize the phrase above, chances are good that you remember the game it came from, Popomatic Trouble. And if you click on that link to the game, you might be amazed at the vocabulary the copy contains – capricious, liberated, reciprocate – hardly the stuff of 140-character u r 2 cool messages.

But tonight’s experiment in Popamaticism comes in a different form, an innocent-enough looking cob of corn, only this cob contains popping corn.

The directions actually say:

Place ear in the centre of your microwave. Be brave! You don’t need a container or paper bag. You can’t see the fun if you do.

So, obedient type that I am, I did as they suggested. And while it wasn’t heaps of excitement to clean up the after-mess, I’ll admit it was fun watching it do its thing. Besides, I got a bowl of one of my favourite snacks as compensation for any inconvenience.

Would I do it again? You poppin’ bet I would.

When it rains...

Because we're stopped at the house of one of my favourite Scrabble partners, she and I have spent a lot of our time having a marathon.

I've come to the conclusion that when you get lousy letters (all vowels, all one-pointers), they often seem to come in streaks.

That was the case when I played U-R-I-N-E, although at least I got to lay it on a triple score, which helped. But when I pulled my next tray of tiles, there were the same darn five letters. Good thing the million dollars a game we play for isn't something either of us will ever collect, even if there really is such a place as the Last Chance Saloon.