A Game Of Twister On “The Tonight Show” Helped Make The Game A Hit (Cool Weird Awesome 1001)
Today in 1966, NBC’s “The Tonight Show” turned Twister, a board game that might have fallen through the cracks, into a big hit.
The Mysterious “Poe Toaster” Raised A Glass To The Author Every Year On His Birthday (Cool Weird Awesome 931)
Today was the birthday in 1809 of author Edgar Allan Poe. It was also the day that, for decades, a mysterious individual would pay tribute to the great writer with a mask, three roses and a bottle of cognac.
Bishops Used To Be Elephants, And Other Wild Stories About How Chess Pieces Got Their Names (Cool Weird Awesome 814)
Today is International Chess Day, so here are a few of the stories about how which pieces were on the board changed over the centuries.
Candy Land, The Board Game Made For Kids Who Couldn’t Leave The Polio Ward (Cool Weird Awesome 752)
For National Board Game Day, we look at the history of Candy Land. That game was designed by a schoolteacher who was trying to help kids in a polio ward pass the time.
Two Guys Wanted A Good Trivia Game To Play, So They Invented Trivial Pursuit (Cool Weird Awesome 672)
Today in 1979, two guys in Canada dreamed up one of the most popular board games of all time: Trivial Pursuit. Here's how it all went down.
Eleonora Sears, A Pioneer In Basically All The Sports (Cool Weird Awesome 622)
Today in 1881, Eleonora Sears was born in Boston. She would go on to be one of the most versatile and accomplished athletes of the early 20th century, excelling in dozens of sports, from tennis and squash to boxing and auto racing. Plus: the website House Rules catalogs all the fun homegrown variations people have come up with for classic board games.
The Board Game Clue Is 70 Years Old, It’s Been A Rough Seven Decades For Mr. Boddy (Cool Weird Awesome 163)
It’s time to celebrate 70 years of Clue, the invention of musician Anthony Pratt, who used to play piano for murder mystery nights at big mansions and thought, this would make a good board game! Plus: the movie "Clue" is well known for the on-camera antics of its amazing cast. But what did the actors do when the cameras weren't rolling?
Neil Armstrong Takes Kamchatka
Imagine if he'd come down the ladder, planted his foot on lunar soil and said, "Win the game... and you win the world"?