Tea and Kate

Reid’s delightful teacher, Mrs. James, runs her classroom as a town, called Jamestown, naturally. The citizens of Jamestown each have a job which comes with a set salary, and occasionally they get the opportunity to spend their savings on provisions (candy, toys, etc). Some citizens–or at least one of them–are arguing for a wage increase.

Yesterday evening we hosted a Kids Climate Action in downtown Orono. Families made signs and got together with drums and rattles and cymbals to parade around the downtown. The weather stayed clear and we had a wonderful time.

On labor day weekend before school started in full swing, we took one last family summer hike, up Pomola peak in Baxter state park. Reid had a fever but he did it nonetheless!

Lunch at the peak.

And Liam played piano on the way out.

In case I haven’t posted this before…. A list Reid made early in first grade when he was learning to be literate in both Spanish and English. He decided he wanted to make a book of photos, so he wrote this list of photos to include.

The same set of gentlemen (those being Liam, Reid, Wesley, Alden, and I) also created another derivation of Rock, Paper, Scissors, creatively entitled “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Tissue, Porch.” Unlike Salsa, Octopus, Train, which features a sub-game, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Tissue, Porch features a meta-game. Specifically, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Tissue, Porch, is a regular game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, within a larger game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. This is how it goes:

1. Players start as usual by saying “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” before throwing their choice of any of the five options including Tissue and Porch.

1. Rock, Paper, and Scissors (RPS) work as usual. R->S->P->R

1. Porch beats all RPS (because none of those affect a porch). Tissue looses to all RPS (because each of them destroys a tissue). But Tissue beats Porch (because no one wants a gross tissue on a porch).
2. This means that Tissue (T) and Porch (P), combined with RPS form another RPS system, in which each beats one and it’s beaten by one, in what is called a transitive cycle. T->P->[RPS]->T. So this is a meta game of Rock, Paper, Scissors wrapped around a regular game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Goodbye summer, the days without end goodbye summer, you’ve been a good friend. Goodbye summer and hello to fall the days will now move at a strenuous crawl, say “hey there” to school and all of the kids “did this summer make you happy?” Yes it really did.

Wesley, Alden, Reid, Liam and I created a new variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors called “Salsa, Octopus, Train.” It goes like this.

Train beats Octopus. (squish)

Octopus beats Salsa. (slurp)

Salsa beats Train. (spicy)

However, unlike “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” the game doesn’t end there. In Rock, Paper, Scissors, when you tie, you simply go again. Ties are strategically valueless. But in Salsa, Octopus, Train, ties are an opportunity to score a point, using a second set of rules:

1. In a tie, Salsa beats Salsa, Octopus beats Octopus and Train beats Train.
2. When a tie occurs, such as “Salsa, Salsa,” the first person to quote the rules, such as “Salsa beats Salsa, so I win,” gets the point. However, experienced players are often both prepared to quote the rules, leading to a rule quoting tie.
3. In the advent of a rule quoting tie, the first person to concede the point to the other player, such as “oh, right. You win,” actually wins the point. However, expert players are often both prepared to concede, leading to a concession tie.
4. In the advent of a concession tie, or any other disputes, no points are awarded, in the fashion of basic Rock, Paper, Scissors, and regular play resumes.

This creates a nice little sub-game, which changes the focus and makes it quite interesting. We would love feedback if you try!