In search of a particular quotation, I was surprised to learn that Ten Pin Bowling got it name as evasion in the face of Puritan proscription of Nine Pin…!

http://www.bartleby.com/185/19.html

>I was surprised to learn that Ten Pin Bowling got it name as evasion in the face of Puritan proscription of Nine Pin…!

As a kid, I remember my Dad having a huge stack of "Classics Illustrated" comics. The one that had both "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip van Winkle" stuck with me precisley because the old Dutch guys were playing nine-pins. I remember thinking at the time, (orientating myself to use words favoured by our Louahvul ayleur) "There ain't no such game".

"There ain't no such game".

I realize it's not normally in my nature to correct faulty grammar in others, but that should be "They ain't no such a game".

Well, I guess I has to be thankifying you for correctating my erroneousity, Faldage.

erroneousity

Not to join the nitpick gang, sjmaxq, but shouldn't that be erroneosity (generous/generosity)?

Heh. Maybe not in Zild, Nancy. They have a different pronounciation there.

[dragging thread back on topic e] But first, a side note to nancyk--you read my mind, girlfriend! ;-)

What a great link! (Though I must say, I found a couple of typos .) Here's something *I never knew: The word soccer is derived from association; the rules of the game were established by the London Football Association. Soccer is one of the relatively few English experiments in portmanteau words.

I can't resist putting something that reminded me of an ongoing argument with a Zildish friend: (an Englishman) has no verb in such wide practise as to fix. In his speech it means only to make fast or to determine. In American it may mean to repair, as in “the plumber fixed the pipe”; to dress, as in “Mary fixed her hair”; to prepare, as in “the cook is fixing the gravy”; to bribe, as in “the judge was fixed”; to settle, as in “the quarrel was fixed up”; to heal, as in “the doctor fixed his boil”; to finish, as in “Murphy fixed Sweeney in the third round”; to be well-to-do, as in “John is well-fixed”; to arrange, as in “I fixed up the quarrel”; to be drunk, as in “the whiskey fixed him”; to punish, as in “I’ll fix him”; and to correct, as in “he fixed my bad Latin.” Moreover, it is used in all its English senses. An Englishman never goes to a dentist to have his teeth fixed. He does not fix the fire; he makes it up, or mends it. He is never well-fixed, either in money or by liquor. There--fixed your wagon, I reckon!


P.S.--"pronounciation": <grin>

They have a different pronounciation there.

Plus all those extra "u"s: hono[u]r, colo[u]r, glamo[u]r, erroneo[u]sity, etc.

They're not "extra" we just chose not to let one egotistical old man set up himself as arbiter of our orthography, chopping out letters he didn't like purely to make a poltical point.

Residing as I do in HLM's home town (I once nearly bought a house on the square where he lived), I have to accord due deference to the Sage. However in his day, and still in this barbarous and illiterate age, 'ten pins' had, and has, a particular meaning in Baltimore and in a few other spots around the U.S. where the sport of duckpins is as popular, if not more popular then tenpins. 'Tenpins' is used to refer to one form of bowling as distinguished from 'duckpins'.

Believed to have been introduced by German immigrants (so HLM certainly would have known about this), duckpins is a variation on the standard tenpins game. Duckpins is played with ten pins on an alley of the same dimensions as a tenpin alley. The pins are about 2/3 as tall as tenpins and more squat in shape; hence they are more stable and more difficult to knock down. The ball used in duckpins is about the size of a large grapefruit (I forget the exact size) and has no holes, but is made of the same material as the large tenpin ball and is thus quite heavy for its size. It's held in the palm of the hand and thrown while gripped with the fingers. Lastly, in duckpins, you get to roll your ball three times in a frame if you don't score a strike on the first roll or a spare on the second.

Duckpins is much more difficult than tenpins. A perfect 300 score is almost unheard of; in fact, a score over 250 is outstanding. The size of the ball and the pins causes far fewer strikes than in tenpins and the player is often left for his second roll 2 or 3 pins which will be difficult to get down in order to achieve a spare. In fact, playing "splits" for a spare is a most important part of duckpins.

/digression

I guess HLM was only interested in the difference between tenpins and ninepins and hence didn't refer to duckpins.

I've played duckpins. If I remember aright, the ball is small enough to fit between two pins if very carefully misaimed.

the ball is small enough to fit between two pins

Farbeit for me to pick nits, magister, but are you implying it can't fit between any of the other eight?

are you implying?

No. Are you inferring? And, if so, would you mind explaining what I wrote that would lead you to make that inference? Or is it another example of transpondial confusion?

Parm mah inference, but ifn you said I had left a window open on my car, wouldn't it be common usage to suspect the other windows to have been properly closed - the exception being noteworthy?

inference

Well, if you really need it spelled out for you, it only goes between any given pair of pins at a time. The hordes of prescrips would be all over me if I were to suggest that it could go between three pins. And besides, I was talking about the ball, not the pins.

really need it spelled out for you

Frequently - my spelling's crap :)

... the ball is small enough to fit between two pins ...

Skipping over the logic-chopping (or syntax-chopping), you are quite correct, Faldage. It won't go between pins when all 10 are standing, but it often goes between two (or more) pins without hitting any when some have been already knocked down. Of course this is true in tenpins as well, especially if you are faced with "lighthouses" -- the 7-10 split -- but you rarely see the tenpin ball miss everything with any split less disastrous. It happens frequently in duckpins. And in duckpins, the 7-10 split is even more difficult to make.

from my days of studying for my bowling master's, I seem to recall something known as rubber-band duckpins (or summat), which was just the same as duckpins but they had a big strip of rubber around the middle to give them a little more action. I wonder if this game is still extant..

..barely: http://www.duckpins.com/common/info/other.html

Perhaps I should have made it clear that I meant between two adjacent pins. E.g., if you have the seven and eight pins standing it is possible to roll the ball between them without hitting either.

I truly like your coinage "farbeit," mav. :)

is that pronouced "far-bite"? ala auf Deutsche?

is that pronouced "far-bite"?

Albeit, is it?

are we playing tag?

No, Faldage, I don't think that's possible. Far as I know the dimensions of the ball and pins and the placement of the pins is such that if the ball went exactly between two pins in the same plane, it would take down both. Where it goes between standing pins is when they appear to be close together but are not in the same plane (like 7 and 8); e.g., 2 and 5, or 4 and 8.

I have done some duckpin bowling (was even in the neighborhood league for a while) and I don't remember any time when the ball slipped between two adjacent pins without taking down at least one of them.

not in the same plane (like 7 and 8); e.g., 2 and 5

Isn't the layout equilateral? If so, the distance between 7 and 8 would be the same as that between 2 and 5. I only say that the ball is small enough to fit between two pins because I seem to remember having done it my own se'f while bowling duckpins.

Mebbe the duckpins' positioning was a bit firetrucked up?

or perhaps we were at the Wine Bowl?

According to this site (http://www.duckpins.com/common/info/specs.html) the pins are set 12 inches apart center to center. The maximum width of a pin is 4.125 inches, so the space between pins is 7.875 inches. The ball is no more than 5 inches in diameter.

That said, it wasn't duckpins I played, it was candlepins.

Edit:

In candlepins (http://www.candlepinbowling.com/Rules.htm) the ball is only 4-1/2 inches in diameter and the pins are 2-15/16 inches and they're *still on 12 inch centers. Note the interesting pin combinations that are named (http://www.candlepinbowling.com/candlepin_language.htm), so presumably relatively common. Particularly see the half Worcester and the full Worcester.

hittin' a full Wooster has got to be a bit o' fancy bowling...

That's right! ~ does it imply say the 8-pin taking out the 2-pin by 'the back door', or how else? Tell me, Columbine.

Luck - What the other bowler always has but you, never.

yah. that's how I'd read it. or lots of cleverly rollin' wood...

I believe that in candlepins the knocked down pins are left, not removed like 5 or 10 pin pins pinpins?. They can then be used to ricochet and knock down more pins.

the knocked down pins are left

Yup. Apparently this can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on where the deadwood is lying.

Dead wood don't lie.

5 or 10 pin pins pinpins?

How's about a couple of hyphens: 5- or 10-pin pins ?

a couple of hyphens

Hi pins, lo pins, they all gotta go... ;)

couple of hyphens
Yes that looks better, thanks nancyk