Birds Bring World Peace?

There's a young lady who works in my department. Normally she is dressed in black, her T-shirts usually depict punk bands, death, or other depressing subjects.

So imagine my surprise when she walked in other day wearing this:



"It was the only thing clean."

Birds, helping hands, peace, love... and a map!

#450

Anthropomorphizing America

Serendipitous map fun today.

On Twitter this morning, @pascal_venier knew I would be amused by this pic posted by @ggatin "Assuming the brain is under the hat?"



This image is on a T-shirt available from BustedTees... which led me to its corollary:



Lest Canadians and Mexicans be offended... the search for these images also led to this YouTube video, "This Country's Getting Dumber":

Where Does Santa Get All Those Toys?

Let the kiddies know where all those Christmas toys are really coming from...



Available from Threadless T-shirts.

Via Boing Boing

Sunrise Over Lake Huron

The American holiday, Labor Day, is coming up on Monday, September 1. Why do we celebrate workers in September? Because May Day is just too "socialist"... By moving it to September, we can all ignore the reason for the holiday, and just celebrate a long weekend at the end of Summer... But that's a topic for another blog.

This year, the 51st annual Mackinac Bridge Walk will take place in Michigan. Every Labor Day since 1958, one side of the bridge has been closed to traffic and the general public are allowed to cross the five-mile span on foot from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City. Traditionally, the State Governor has led the march.

Ten years ago, on Labor Day 1998, I particpated in the Mackinac Bridge walk.



I arrived in Mackinaw City late the night before, and attempted to sleep in my car, with little success. However, I was able to catch, in the early hours before dawn, one of the first busses to St. Ignace. They started the walk before sunrise and the timing was perfect. I was about halfway across the bridge when the sun began to rise over Lake Huron. It was spectacular!



I bought the commemorative t-shirt, and some Mackinaw City Fudge and prepared to head home.



The shirt, I thought, needed a bit more, so I stopped in a T-Shirt shop and had them add this Michigan map to the back.

#242

Power Grid

My latest boardgame aquisition is Power Grid. As eurogames go, this one is middle-range in complexity. Success requires analysis and planning. I have played this game for several years, and a few weeks ago, I actually won for the first time! So I decided it was time I owned a copy.

The object of this game is to supply the most cities with power. To accomplish this goal players purchase power plants and the raw materials needed to run the plants. These materials include coal, oil, garbage, and uranium, but also includes wind and solar-powered plants. The winner of the game will create the most efficient network of plants powering the most cities. The base game comes with a map of the United States on one side:



and a map of Germany on the other:



Official game expansions include Italy, France and the Benelux countries:



However, many enterprising Power Grid fans have created their own maps, allowing them to play in Scandinavia:








...and Connecticut



As it often happens, I found something cool while looking for something else. GameInk.net is offering Power Grid (and other boardgame) themed T-shirts:



Power plant #44 in the game deck is one of the most desirable in the set, as it powers up to five cities, but because it uses solar and wind power, you do not need to purchase resources to burn.

"Money isn't everything, but it is a tie-breaker in Power Grid"

Game board images from BoardGameGeek.com

#227

Crossing the Rubicon

Earlier, I wrote about my experiences in the Diplomacy Hobby, as a gamer and a zine publisher. This t-shirt was given to me as a wedding present by a couple of my old Dip buddies, Scott and "Goz". I suppose I could wear it to a tournament and not need a conference map...

Back when I was publishing my Diplomacy zine, Crossing the Rubicon, my friend, Bill Williams, designed this logo for me. I share it here because, knowing my love of maps, he incorporated an antique globe into the design. Bill had a special color printer that could make t-shirt iron-on transfers. Unfortunately, we forgot to reverse the image... so we printed it again and put the mistake on the back of the shirt:



I am using the old zine name, and the logo Bill designed, for a new blog I started last month. Crossing the Rubicon is primarily my boardgaming log, but I may get around to other articles about boardgames, and reprinting my old zines.

UPDATE: I later decided one blog is enough...

World Shirt

I spent some time yesterday photographing and scanning a variety of items from my map memorabilia and ephemera. In my collection I have several T-shirts with maps on them. I'll start with antique maps of the world.



If only Columbus, Magellan and de Gama had shirt like these... Exploration would be a piece of cake.