"Connecring the dots": origin?

Tue May 4 04:31:58 UTC 2010

"Mumbletypeg involves tossing a pocketknife into the ground in a
progressively more difficult competition usually limited to two
players. If the knife tossed by a player does not stick in the bare
ground, the player loses *his* turn."

This is the version of mumble-peg [m^m@ pEg] that we played in Saint
Louis in the '40's. The possibility that a *girl* might have played
this game in those days is *ridiculous*, for any number of reasons,
including the fact that girls didn't carry knives or even have pockets
in their dresses or skirts in which to carry one, any more than they
had six-inch spike heels, thong panties, or WonderBras. I'd bet money
that no woman alive today who was alive in those days has any idea
what this game is and may not even have heard of it.

There really has to be a sensible limit put to this
no-"sexism"-in-language crap.

-Wilson

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Connecring the dots": origin?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:32 PM -0400 5/3/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >I've also always had the feeling that the reference to the :picture"
> >game, too. In "dots," the point isn't to learn, discover, or reason
> >through anything, but to defeat your opponent.
> >
> >Sadly, I recall dots with less pleasure than Larry does, it being the
> >case that my younger brother regularly kicked my ass, metaphorically
> >speaking, in that game. Well, as my otherwise-loving wife has pointed
> >out, I lack any concept of strategy.
> >
>
> It is indeed the game at the wiki entry Garson provides, although I
> don't recall any specific name for it; besides the pencil and paper
> variant at that site, there's the game I was recalling as
> "Territories", "Territory", or "Land", which I finally found after
> some searching on the web under jack-knife games.  (I forgot that
> crucial feature.)  It's described here under "Territory Land", (a
> moniker which would have struck us as redundant even back then):
> http://www.4to40.com/games/index.asp?gid=4.  ("Stretch", mentioned in
> the discussion, is also familiar, but it was a lot less interesting
> strategically.)   I like the "equipment required" parameter:  "A plot
> of dirt and a jack knife."  (And yes, even in NYC, there was dirt
> available, contrary to the implications at the web site.  I think the
> advent of TV had more to do with the decline of the game than the
> absence of dirt.)
>
> Other sites, e.g. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-mumblety-peg.htm,
> take Territories/Land to be "a version of mumblety-peg" but for us
> (in NYC and a Maine-based boys' summer camp for mostly New Yorkers)
> "mumblety-peg" was reserved for the kinds of display-of-skill
> contests  described in detail at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumblety-peg.  (Interesting that m-p
> turns up in _Tom Sawyer_; I probably took that for granted back when
> I read it.)
>
> LH
>
> (And no, we didn't play these games with switch blades.)
>
>
> >On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 7:55 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> ><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>  Subject:      Re: "Connecring the dots": origin?
> >>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  I think it's more likely to allude to the "drawing" kind of
> >>  "connect-the-dots" game.
> >>
> >>  As you connect those dots, a recognizable picture emerges.
> >>
> >>  Hence the metaphor. IMO.
> >>
> >>  JL
> >>  On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 7:42 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
> >>
> >>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>  -----------------------
> >>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>>  Subject:      Re: "Connecring the dots": origin?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>>  At 6:46 PM -0400 5/3/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>>  >When I was a child, there was a popular game called "dots." You put
> >>>  >parallel lines of equal numbers of dots onto a sheet of paper. The
> >>>  >number of lines was a function of the patience of the person drawing
> >>>  >up the "board." The game was played by connecting the dots, drawing
> >>>  >only one line at a time. Neither player "owned" the lines, so that A
> >>>  >could draw a line to connect a dot to which B had already drawn a line
> >>>  >to make a connection. The point of the game was to be the one who was
> >>>  >able to make the most squares by connecting the dots. A put "A" into
> >>>  >his squares and B put "B" into his, to keep track.
> >>>  >
> >>>  >There were also puzzle-drawing for kids that involved connecting
> >>>  >seemingly randomly-placed, numbered dots in such a way as to draw some
> >>>  >figure by connecting the dots in mumerical order.
> >>>  >
> >>>  >I'm not suggesting that *either* of these games is the source of the
> >>>  >phrase, "connecting the dots." They're just two games that I know of
> >  >> >that involve connecting the dots and which come to mind whenever I
> >>>  >hear talk of "connecting the dots."
> >>>  >
> >>>  >Does anyone know the actual source of the phrase? BTW, I don't really
> >>>  >care. I'm just randomly wondering.
> >>>  >
> >>>  We played that first game in NYC; I'd totally forgotten it.  It was a
> >>>  variant of another game called "Territories". I remember both fondly.
> >>>  The second, puzzle-drawing exercise was a lot less exciting, but I
> >>>  always associated the "connect the dots" metaphor (as in the
> >>>  blamecasting post 9-11) with that one.  But it's nice to be reminded
> >>>  me of that first one!
> >>>
> >>>  LH
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> >>  --
> >>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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> >
> >
> >--
> >-Wilson
> >---
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"--a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-Mark Twain
> >
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Wilson

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