<div dir="auto">You observed correctly, Steve. When I drove bumper cars my goal was to "win the race". Others' goals were to crash into as many people as possible.<br><br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">---<br>Frank C. Wimberly<br>140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br>Santa Fe, NM 87505<br><br>505 670-9918<br>Santa Fe, NM</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 30, 2021, 9:34 AM Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p>The "bumper car" image does sound apropos in many ways. <br>
</p>
<p>I never actually climbed into one of those but was fascinated the
couple of times I saw them at the State Fair... as I remember it,
there was a grid on the floor and one on the ceiling providing the
two "rails" for power and there were copious sparks where the
"brushes" on the end of the flexible wand contacted the ceiling
grid. As a country hick, the whole arrangement looked really
sketchy to me. But as a (somewhat) rational observer, I was
pretty sure nobody died in those rides, or at least not from
flying sparks. I suppose, in the spirit of play-as-practice or
play-as-learning there is a significant element of "just jumping
in and smashing into one another". Being the hick that I am I
sometimes have a hard time ignoring the sparks that fly off of the
floor and ceiling.</p>
<p>I've also watched groups of guys (brothers, friends, frats)
racing around mini courses in go-carts and noticed that many of
them seem happier bumping into one another and impeding *others'*
progress than actually making their own progress. Occasionally
women/girls join in, but not so much usually. Maybe the
calculated obstructionism in a game of Hearts or Spades is more
gender-inclusive? Some are better at "shooting the moon" than
others...<br>
</p>
<p>I munno, as usual I am probably stretching this too far. <br>
</p>
<p>Carry On,</p>
<p> - Steve<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite">
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<p>Steve writes:<u></u><u></u></p>
<p>< I think some of what Nick and Jon might have identified
here as "bullying" might actually be more in the spirit of
"Counting Coup", but I'm not really clear on where the two fit
together in the GrandUnifiedOntologyDuFriAM ><u></u><u></u></p>
<p>In think it is more in the spirit of bumper cars. Here,
gentle reader, we have a car, and we can study its wheels and
the electricity delivery mechanism, its motor, and controls.
We can take copious notes and make predictive models of the
maximum displacement it could impart to another bumper car.
Or we can just jump in and smash into each other.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p>Marcus<u></u><u></u></p>
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<br>
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