She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah

Saturday bunnyhugger went to a women's pinball tournament, another one from the Grand Rapids chapter of Bells and Chimes. This time they were at RLM Amusements, the pay-one-price arcade opened up by the guy who used to run the Grand Rapids Pinball League. (He still does, but it's no longer held at the hipster bar where it used to be.) While the events have been there before, this was the first time since before the pandemic that she went to one. The place was much neater, more orderly than it had been back in 2019 or so. Granted that's also when RLM Amusements was just getting organized, finding a venue and a regular spot and what hours RLM could be present to run the thing.

As usual it was a strikes tournament, everyone playing in pairs until they lost five games. And as usual bunnyhugger was a power player, reaching all the way to finals in a winner-takes-all match against LDL. She lost by a whisker, too, the sort of razor-tight game that's thrilling for everyone but that she hates because of how much attention it gets. And, of course, how much everyone makes a fuss over the winner for a last-minute razor-thin win, even when she is the winner.

And as you may have gathered from my describing the venue any, I went this time. Since bunnyhugger resumed going to women's events (besides the ones she runs) she's mostly gone on her own. Some of this was my desire that she have space of her own. Some of this was being depressed and beaten down by 2022. But this time I was thinking of how it was fun to go out and do a pinball thing the week before, so why not try and do that again? And, it was. Much of what I did was try to stay out of the way, waiting for a round to start so I could play a game taht wasn't in service, or adjacent to one in service. It only felt like this blocked out everything except the video games.

I did enjoy going out, though, and playing games around the corners of the serious players. Unfortunately I couldn't give any useful advice on how to play games bunnyhugger had forgotten how to play, like Tales From The Crypt. Or much consolation when she did lose first place by 1/128th of a point. (She felt lousy about, particularly, having taken a bunch of losses early in the tournament. But also reflected that she did manage a couple of times some good ball handling or other deft touches. She also had a fantastic game of Torpedo Alley, an obscure late-80s game that I also had an excellent game on when I played it at Pinburgh once.) But there's always next month, for the Grand Rapids women's tournament, and later this month, for the Lansing one. bunnyhugger has already made the prize trophy for that.

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What about pictures, you may ask? I thought I had another day's worth of Sunshine pictures and discovered I need to pull more off my photo roll too late for me to feel up to doing that, so, enjoy one more of those rare days that isn't eating up your data plan, all.

Trivia: Around Christmas 1959 Jay Ward was in talks to do a movie-length adaptation of Mad Magazine for Paramout. Source: The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose, Keith Scott. I don't know how advanced this talk got, but wow, what a curio that would have been.

Currently Reading: Shakespeare's Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature, Stuart Kells.