The International Flipper Pinball Association, trying to make up for the pinball community's driving out women over the past half century, set up a parallel Women's Pinball Championship Series. First for the individual United States and Canadian provinces last year. This year, those same state championships plus a North American Championship Series. The first director for Michigan's Women's Pinball Championship? ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger, whose smooth operations of things last year was marred only by her first-round loss to a player she never heard of before.
As things developed this year, bunnyhugger was slated to face someone she had heard of, who coincidentally had her same first name, and whom she didn't feel confident about being able to beat. Her only hope was that someone of the top sixteen players --- the eight women with highest ranking in co-ed competitions, and the eight with highest ranking in women-only contests, and a bewildering set of rules about people who are in both top eights --- didn't say they were attending. They all said they were attending.
And then in the last days before the tournament this past Sunday, the extraordinary's happening caused a foreseeable result. The Detroit Lions have had a very good season and were playing a second-round postseason game for the first time, uh, I don't know, since pro football stopped mostly having teams with names like the 'North Tonawanda Hupmobile Marble-Eaters'. (I haven't looked this up. It's been a while, anyway.) With their playing Sunday, bunnyhugger's opponent, who works for the Lions in some capacity, had to drop out. This lined bunnyhugger up to play someone first round that she was sure she could beat. (As it happens, that person would knock out last year's champion and go on to the final four.)
But while she was feeling confident in that, the extraordinarily predictable happened. One of the players had to drop out for Covid-19. Sad news, yes, and it confused everyone because now one of the players switched between the 'open' and 'restricted' sides (see above bewildering rules). When everything was settled bunnyhugger could look forward to facing ... a player she never heard of before.
The search for intelligence on this new opponent was frustrating. MWS was happy to offer the tip that this other player had been on fire, and everyone in the comments sections agreed. I tried digging into other player's record, so far as we could find, to see how serious a threat she might be --- a fair player having a hot streak? A great player under-valued because she doesn't play enough different tournaments? --- and we couldn't reach any conclusions, or even ideas about what she might be weak on. Her home venue has everything so we couldn't even suppose that she wouldn't be likely to have experience on older games or something. So things were excited around here leading up to the tournament.
If you glanced at this blog yesterday you saw what the final result is. But the story of how we got there, I intend to share ... in two days. Maybe one, if I have time after pinball league tomorrow, but the track record suggests I will not. We'll see, though.
Some fresh pictures from Ghostwood Estates now, please, as of KennyKon last year.
More of the wedding feast, including the cake.
And a look at the organist, the happy couple, and a ghost girl who doesn't look at all like she's falling over backwards.
The label identifies this as a Grafonola record player. Wikipedia tells me the Grafonola was the Columbia Phonograph Company's line of internal-horn mechanical-amplification record players so either this is an amusement park item with a labelling mistake or Wikipedia doesn't know everything.
A working stunt! So this axe fell down --- not too quickly --- as I approached it, giving me a jump scare, first because of anything moving; then I thought, oh, well, they wouldn't turn this on if it actually got anywhere near anyone; then I thought, it's designed to not get near anyone sitting in a car, which I am not; and finally I thought, but they also wouldn't turn it on if it got anywhere near someone walking through, like they knew people were going to do.
Moving into the next chamber, with all the knights and banners and axes to fall slowly aside.
I believe the yellow is the same shield as in the previous picture, but the red is a different one yet.
Trivia: After the war Paul Revere's rolling mill at Canton, Massachusetts provided sheet copper for several United States Navy vessels. Source: Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes, Christopher Hibbert.
Currently Reading: The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts, Loren Grush.
PS: Reviewing _Popeye and Son_, Episode 11: Ain't Mythbehavin' gives us another Popeye cartoon with a dragon!
