Foosball Fanatics

I love people who are passionate about hobbies, no matter how odd their pastime may be from something I’m interested in.

It’s this sole focus that creates interest.

I so enjoyed the documentary “King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters” about guys who spent days and days and years and years playing the video game Donkey Kong in order to be proclaimed the best in the world thanks to their high scores.

Now, I’ve run across a similar passion for the game foosball.

Patrick Hruby has written a piece for ESPN.com’s Page 2 that introduced me to the hardcore fooser.

I’ve played foosball a few times in bars with little to no success.

I certainly didn’t play enough to create callouses on my wrist, of all places, like these folks. I never even considered using my wrist to rotate the rods.

Did you know there’s a pro foosball circuit?

Yep, but it’s not as big as it was 30 years ago.

Hey, thousands of people watch a table full of dudes in sunglasses play poker on television every week, so what’s wrong with these foosers hoping their game’s popularity rises once again?

Canadian Cousins – What’s Going On Up There?!?

I ran across this pic on the web site for The Record newspaper in Ontario Canada over the weekend.

What’s going on with my legion up there in the Great White North?

“But it’s a squirrel that’s turning heads these days. A black and white squirrel that looks as though it tangled with a skunk. Or a Holstein. Or Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.”

It seems there’s a natural explanation for the color scheme.

According to the story, it’s piebald – a phenomenon that is more common in horses.

“Piebald applies to any animal displaying depigmented white fur.”

I prefer to think of it like Seinfeld’s black-and-white cookie.

We should all look to the cookie.

Squirrel Queen’s editorial note: I wrote this post on Monday but never hit the publish button so it was stuck in my drafts. So technically, this is my nablopomo post for 11/10/08.