The Writing Desk of Jakebe Rabbit

So stop me if you've heard this but we were at Cedar Point all day and I didn't have time to write anything. Instead, enjoy a dozen or so pictures from the Michigan State Women's Pinball Tournament.

Artwork set up at the Crazy Quarters Arcade showing all stuff from the classic arcade games they have, plus Kangaroo.

I don't think there was anywhere you could sit and eat immediately near this Lunch Box decoration but at least it has a lot of modern-looking faintly-ironic lunchboxes on the wall.

And here's some of the games they have that aren't pinball.

Here's the plaque for the winner (who wouldn't be bunnyhugger this year) and the first-through-fourth-place trophies. The International Flipper Pinball Association provided the plaque; the trophies were on bunnyhugger's dime.

Crazy Quarters has some of these posters that I, too, would have thought were at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

And here's a corner with a vintage-looking poster advertising Dracula from when he was the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

In another corner where I couldn't quite get at it they had a playfield for an old-style mechanical pinball game, where you get points for dropping balls in scoops.

bunnyhugger getting ready to give competitors their instructions and set things up for the matches to get started.

Since I didn't have much of anything to do I looked around the area that we could play. Venue has a Scooby-Doo game like we'd seen when we were in California back in 2023, but I'm no good at it.

Hung up around the venue are flyers for a lot of games, including here the 90s Guns N Roses and Dungeons N Dragons games.

More vintage pinball flyers, including one based on the Broadway musical version of Tommy and the cartoon-mayhem-themed Mousin' Around.

And some propaganda-style posters for Donkey Kong, Tron, and Dig Dug. I don't think freedom was at stake in the Dig Dug backstory. I thought it was just Dig Dug Guy getting creatures out of his garden beds.

Trivia: The first cesium-based atomic clock was built in 1955 by British physicists Louis Essen and Jack Parry. Source: Time's Pendulum: The Quest to Capture Time --- from Sundials to Atomic Clocks, Jo Ellen Barnett.

Currently Reading: Comic books! At last. I picked up a couple at the comic book shop downtown and discovered that it has reached the level of expansion where it supports a fridge of out-of-market soda pop, which is how I was able to surprise bunnyhugger yesterday with a couple glass bottles of Moxie.

Pin-golf got started before I got home from work. The format lets you start anytime and the plan was that people could start playing a course anytime between 4:30 and 7:00. By the time I got home and walked to the barcade to join bunnyhugger a few people were already playing, and she was waiting for the chance to start herself. Past experience said it was a bad idea for the two of us to play at the same time, since it leaves the main desk with nobody watching it, but it's also just ... not done ... to play on your own if you can help it. So when the next couple people came in, bunnyhugger started playing with them while I watched the desk and gave people instructions and all that.

Fear and Trembling is usually a small tournament --- people shy away from the pin-golf format, it seems --- and since you can start anytime there's never a particular reason to start at this time, so folks drift in slowly. I didn't get to start playing myself until just before 7pm, when, among other things, FAE and DMC decided to ditch the cards they had been playing and start new ones (one could restart a try for a small additional donation to the charity). DMC's choice to restart came after he had accidentally been playing toward one objective but had written down, on the scoresheet, that he was attempting the other. It was clear to everyone what he had meant to do, but we have to go by what's on the page and with that failure to meet the goal, a 4, he decided to restart. This is how he and FAE ended up in a group with me.

Since I had tested out most of the objectives in the preceding half-week and had suggested or concurred with all of them you'd expect I would be good at the course, if you had no idea how pin-golf works. Even expert players have trouble with some of them --- DMC, an expert on the game Rush, failed on his first go-round to make that objective in a single ball! --- and I'm not an expert player. I think my only hole-in-one was the Rush objective, one that we had agreed was an easy one, but also that you need some easy objectives because it is too demoralizing when everything is impossible. Despite that even expert players DMC and FAE had a couple of 4's, representing objectives never made. And even some of the more novice players, in other groups, got a couple of objectives in three or even two balls, giving them a heck of a feeling of triumph.

I did just well enough to make the four-person playoffs, which took me by such surprise that when bunnyhugger told me I said ``no I did not''. The playoffs were further pin-golf, playing a bank of three holes at the choice of top-seeded DMC, and the objectives chosen by second-seed FAE. (RED and I just got to pick our order of play.) I did not do well in the first two of the playoff objectives, even though they were the same ones as the main course. The only one I managed was on the final game, King Kong, playing the goal of climbing to 200 feet of the Empire State Building, which you do by making a specific set of game-chosen shots, one of them a right bastard, because there isn't a reliable angle to set up the shot. I ended up giving up on aiming for that and starting a multiball instead on the correct supposition that in the chaos of three balls running around something would go my way, and it did.

Still, that left me in fourth-place, still taking home a trophy. RED took home third place, the trophy he liked best too --- one he happened to mention earlier in the night as being awesome, assuaging bunnyhugger's fears that she had made disappointing trophies this time around --- and DMC took second. This meant FAE won the Fear and Trembling tournament for the fourth time in a row and it's kind of a shame we can't give them permanent possession of a trophy. They just have to take home this year's first-place trophy again.

Still can't believe I made the cut but there's the trophy to prove it.

Now I'm going to close out Christmas lights pictures; I promised you I was going to be more sparing in these, didn't I? Go ahead and guess what amusement park photographs come up next.

Pterodactyl light that's stationary and not animated, but the streaks in my windshield give it a little vibe of having just landed anyway.

And I'm always going to be fond of showing a sea serpent. As I recall the serpent actually has only one tail, with the end alternating, and my picture got both lit at once.

This Santa alligator looks like they've taken all the cold medicine.

From the Noah's Ark display here's two raccoons, two squirrels, and two frogs hanging out. The rest of the Ark is on the other side of the street.

Oh, bunch of people pointing at a lad in a basket, wonder what comes next.

The reindeer are so glad that I'm leaving. You can see a bit of the raceway stadium stairs behind, in the picture, that you couldn't possibly see in person.

Trivia: One of the Sanskrit words for 'Wednesday' was 'Budhuvasara', meaning 'Awakening'. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, EG Richards.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham.

All the way ago last Tuesday bunnyhugger hosted this year's Fear and Trembling pinball tournament. This is her pin-golf event, where the goal is not to score points but to complete objectives in as few balls as possible. This is a fun and frustrating format, for everyone. Us, for the challenge of figuring out what tables to use and what objectives to set on them. Everyone else, for finding that they can't manage to do something on purpose that they always do incidentally while playing. Sometimes your best approach is to ignore the goal and just play a good game, but people only resort to that in desperation.

Speaking of desperation: one extra challenge we put on ourselves is that the tournament offers a player's choice of objectives, so we need to find tables that have two clear objectives that aren't just ``get a bunch of points''. Ideally they should be objectives you can make progress on that's saved, ball-to-ball, and should make it really clear when you've made the goal so you don't have to guess what happened. The point of this is to make choosing, and knowing you might have succeeded if you'd picked the other objective, part of the game.

Ironically, we passed on the challenge of picking which tables, turning the choice over to a random number generator. Well, we feel like we always pick the same games and after long enough you run out of different goals. The random number generator picked an interesting enough course, though, including a couple games I really like, at least one that I don't but am somehow good at, and didn't repeat too many from the last couple years' of games.

Picking objectives was annoying, in part because many modern pinball games have gotten complicated to the point there are jillions of things to do and the video screens, for all the space they have, don't always persistently show you what happened. Ultimately we only had to bump one game from the main bank to backup for want of being sure we had a clean objective. And there was testing, because with stuff going on we didn't have enough time at our local barcade to try them all out. I went two days in a row in the leadup to the tournament to try out objectives I wasn't sure about, but still left a couple games --- like Medieval Madness, which I've played so many times in person and in virtual form that I doubt there's anything I don't know --- with objectives that were technically untested.

Still, what's the worst that could happen?

That teased, let's wrap up photos of our trip to Crossroads Village from the last week of last year. I'm almost up to within the past ten months!

Another intersection with a nice lighted fence and some really good reflections here.

Here's the village's central tree and the reflections in the slush around it.

Not Santa! Just one of his many statues waving around the place. Note the over-decorated tree in the background, one of the village's centerpiece items.

The opera house and the coffee shop here, near the end of the night. The gift shop has already closed and is dark.

The tree wrapped up tight in lights. I think this is the time we overheard someone asking and told them that yeah, we'd been here in the summer and the tree was still wrapped, just unlit.

And a parting view of the train station and a lot of wet planks of wood.

Trivia: When developing the first periodic table of the elements Dimitri Mendeleyev supposed that the atomic weights of either tellurium (128) or iodine (127) must be wrong because tellurium clearly preceded iodine in order. Mendeleyev was correct about the ordering, but did not know of isotopes, or that there is enough abundant tellurium-130 that an unrefined sample's average weight will be closer to 128, while iodine-127 is the only common isotope of that element. Source: Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, John Emsley.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham.

So skipping ahead a little bit in what I mean to report here: we just got back from our Halloweekends vacation at Cedar Point. I had filled out, online, the Post Office's form to Hold Mail. Sunday night we got home to a mailbox stuffed full of un-held mail.

You might remember that we had a problem holding mail this spring, when we went to France and they delivered one day's mail in the middle of the hold period, and then just ... like ... never really got around to delivering the held mail. Not in full, at least. So this time I had specified that I would come to the post office and collect the held mail, in person, and I did that today. Yes, I had a bunch of mail already, including some today --- theoretically the last day of the hold --- but how did I know there wasn't any more?

The clerk took my printed-out hold mail form back, and disappeared for a long while, during which (he would tell me) he looked in the various mail hold compartments, and talked with a supervisor, and with some carrier who wasn't ours but who knew something about the hold mail process, and they had nothing. So I asked why. With two hold-mail fails out of two tries (I forgot our Extreme Heat road trip) I wanted to know if I was somehow doing something wrong.

The clerk did not know why, as they never do. But he did ask if I'd filled out the hold mail form in person. No, I'd done it online. And so it turns out this was probably my problem. Because you know what you need when you have data in an online system about whose mail should be held and on what days? You need someone who can access the system and apparently our local post office currently does not have anyone who can access that system. This is a sufficiently ridiculous explanation that I believe it.

But they think that filling out a physical form, at the post office, will make it less likely that something goes wrong, I guess because someone at the post office will actually be able to read any of this. We'll see whenever our next multi-day trip out of town comes up.

Next thing on my photo roll is Crossroads Village, so we're in the Christmas-to-New-Years stretch of lots of lighting, so, please enjoy that. I am again trying to limit myself to sharing pictures that look better than usual.

bunnyhugger looking like she's having a great time already as we get to Crossroads Village.

Someone ahead of me peeking at the train as it arrives and isn't that a great halo around their hat?

Here's the holiday train going into warp right past us.

Inside one of the Crossroads Village preserved buildings. Here you see Santa Claus's Willy Wonka hat.

There's a shuttle that runs from the front of the village back to where the carousel is. We never take it because waiting for it would be slower than just walking back there, but you can see here at least four of the same guy wearing the same blue jacket and cap taking the ride.

But we're already back at the carousel building and looking back at the village, here.

Trivia: The fastest flight of the first-generation Bell X-1 aircraft was 960 miles per hour, Mach 1.45. Its highest was 69,000 feet. Source: American X-Vehicles: An Inventory - X-1 to X-50, Dennis R Jenkins, Tony Landis, Jay Miller.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham. I should say if you haven't figured this out. Given how for the past week I haven't had time to write up what I've been up to, and that we were at Halloweekends all last week, I haven't actually had time to read one page in like a solid week now.

I am once more asking you to bear with me and look at photographs as I don't have the time to write things. Please enjoy the Potter Park Zoo Wonderland of Lights from ten months ago.

A peek inside one of the large animal veterinary buildings. I'm sure that you, as I, would really like to rub your back against that big brush.

Skating bear illuminations, much like ones we see at the Crossroads Village lights display.

A gazebo with its own lights. This looks out over an actual if small pond that was frozen over.

See? Pond both small and frozen.

The twin swans illuminations, which have been around forever and in a series of new locations.

This is the bottom of the curtain of vertically hung strands of light. I love how the loose ends form these pools of color. The horizontal strand in front is a couple feet off the ground, there to discourage people going up to the wall of light.

One of those illuminated swans with trail lights around them.

Corvid Corner is a new thing but I think you'd all agree you'd like to hang out there.

Here's another portal of light ready to engage and whisk you off to an alternate universe.

bunnyhugger getting a close-up picture of a couple trees heavily wrapped up to about what a tall guy could reach without a ladder.

Construction of the new Polehenge is looking good.

And here's a couple illuminated deer/reindeer that are looking good.

Trivia: In 1403 King Taejong of Korea initiated the printing of the country's laws using copper plates in the printing press. Source: A Place For Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order, Judith Flanders.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham.

Way, way too much time doing things today; it's anyone's guess whether I'll even have this dozen photos wrapping up our final visit to Marvin's. Only one way to be sure!

King Cobra, once again not operating. I'm not sure when's the last time I got to stare down a robot snake.

That somewhat mysterious big head advertising Big Marvin's Used Furniture.

Marvin's Marvelous Monkey Band, which some of the old signs mention as an attraction. I don't know when's the last time it ever did anything. Nor what the Zoolympics With Sparky are all about.

Cartoon renditions of some of the animatronics they have on display ... say, I wonder if that's that lounge-singer hippo who's there for the adults?

Big Boy and Tattooed Woman. Plus a really big boot for some reason. The Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze was their fifth motion picture, featuring the classic team-up of Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe DeRita.

Finally, a decent shot of the Vibratory Doctor who is not electric but is pleasant.

bunnyhugger hanging around with Pinball Row.

A wooden chain that the sign claims Marvin's great-granddaddy carved out of a 48-foot-long piece of wood. Believe it ... or not?

bunnyhugger and I finally did leave, though, closing out our final visit to this place.

Last look back at the people inside playing pinball.

My car, all alone, I mean except for ...

Marvin's truck, ready to deliver bemusements and whatnot to you. And that, my friends, was Marvin's, Farmington Hills.

Trivia: From 1894 to 1897 the National League played a best-of-seven postseason contest for the Temple Cup, between the first- and second-place teams of the (twelve-team) league. All four series were decided in five or fewer games. Also each series included the Baltimore Orioles. Source: A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations that Shaped Baseball, Peter Morris. Morris also noted the second-place team won three of the four matchups, making people wonder if the regular season penant meant anything.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham.

Saturday we hoped to do a couple fun things. mystee was going to be in the area and we'd hoped to meet up sometime, but finding a date and time we'd be free was hard. But there was already a furry meetup planned for that day, first at an orchard/cider mill we'd never heard of before, and then going over to The Arcade in Brighton. This seemed like a good destination to mystee and to us as well and we figured to get together then.

So it won't surprise you that we got off late to this get-together we wanted to attend with a friend we haven't seen in ages. I should have asked when to set an alarm for before going to bed the night before but I didn't, and we got started later than we should, and slower than we should because somehow we forgot the whole world is construction anymore. Also we had to park farther from the cider mill than we expected.

Happily, finding furries was no real problem, and mystee and her posse were almost as easy. There were a lot of regular people delighted to see strange mascots wandering around the midst of an already busy, cheerful day at a packed cider mill. It was in the 70s and rain was forecast for sometime much later in the day, so everyone in eastern Michigan was there.

So we settled in and had some cider and some mill^W doughnuts, and talked a fair bit, especially about all the interesting things there were to see and do around here. We did none of them, because almost on the dot as we finished our cider and doughnuts the storm clouds we had all agreed looked like rain in a couple hours turned out to be lots of rain right now, right on us, and we fled for our cars. This proved to be a mistake as the rain was only pouring for a couple minutes and by the time we were in the car, spongee-ing off my coati tail and bunnyhugger's jackalope costume it had settled to a gentler mist. We'd have done better to stay under cover, if there were nearly enough for crowds like were there.

But this broke up the cider mill gathering, right about at the 3:00 that we were supposed to go over to The Arcade anyway. We cursed ourselves, me lighter than bunnyhugger, for getting there so late, especially after we learned that mystee wasn't going to go to the Arcade after all.

So at The Arcade while we knew Vix who was there we didn't know hardly anybody, which didn't stop people from coming up to admire bunnyhugger's costume, including one guy at the supermarket next door where we parked and who didn't know there were furries in the area, cool. (A smaller number of people admired my tail, which was of course a gift from bunnyhugger.) This wasn't bad, particularly, although it was very loud and crowded. We were able to work out the rules for a couple objectives for an upcoming pin-golf tournament bunnyhugger is running --- watch this space --- and to play the Pinball Brothers' new game Abba, which was fun but prone to draining, like, a lot.

The day ended up short of what we'd hoped it would be, but at least driving home we got to see lightning tearing the sky open, which was very exciting to drive though.

Now, some more pictures of Marvin's from our farewell visit.

CST collecting his second trophy of the night, for Jaws. Ah, but who would win the third and final, The Uncanny X-Men?

Wait a second ... me? I won it? ... Oh yeah! (The 2nd there is the playing order; I pick second when I have the chance. My score is the highest.)

Old furnace clock that I noticed for the first time on the floor between the Venom and Deadpool tables.

And a Popeye the Sailor clock I've seen many times before. I don't know why his shirt is white except maybe to give the center something to look at.

Peering slightly upward at the coin-op merry-go-round and some of the many planes in the area. Also another copy of that Mickey Mouse candy factory where turtles are covered in chocolate and sent out as food.

Warning sign for the merry-go-round that seems like it could use one more - mark. Also some of the coin ops, like the teddy bears at the center bottom, or the 'Love Shack' cherub nearby it.

Trivia: The inaugural broadcast of WLW's 500,000 Watt transmitter on 2 May 1934 was officially turned on at 9:03 pm by President Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, tapping the same golden telegraph key that Wilson had used to signal the opening of the Panama Canal. Source: Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation, Rusty McClure with David Stern and Michael A Banks. It took a long while for the tubes to warm up to that much power and they were still warming up when Roosevelt hit his key.

Currently Reading: Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham.