"Rock paper scissors" vs. "Rock scissors paper"

[James Callan]

I should add: spent ages 1-10 in Neenah, Wisconsin, then moved to the Milwaukee suburbs. And I can't remember where I first played that game.

My own rationale for the order: it makes more sense to me to go in X beats Y order -- rock beats scissors beats paper -- rather than reverse -- rock loses to paper loses to scissors. But I'm sure that's post-hoc rationalization.

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
> In a quick poll, all 23 of my little Webfoot (that's Oregonians)
> students  say 'rock paper scissors', although some of say they have
> heard paper, rock, scissors.  Your order got goofy looks and one kid
> said, 'that's just.....' He didn't finish what he was going to say.  3
> kids know Roshambo as another name for RPS, but several others claim
> it's a different game.
> Fritz J
>
> >>> james.callan at COMCAST.NET 9/13/2006 10:33 AM >>>
> I realized the other day that, while I almost always call the game
> "rock scissors paper," it's far more popularly known as "rock paper
> scissors." (I know Google results aren't gospel, but 58,700 vs.
> 2,000,000 is a victory of several significant decimal places. Plus, the
> game's World Society uses Rock Paper Scissors.)
>
> Is there any regional variation in which order people use for the 3
> elements of this game, or is this just my own quirk?
>
> Bonus question: is "roshambo" (450,000 ghits) a recent retitling of the
> game, or have people grown up calling it that for decades? I first heard
> the term a few years ago.
>
> James Callan
> neologasm.com
>
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