On a sunny, stormy Sunday in late February we took ourselves and our goldendoodle, The Dood, to the broad beach at the mouth of the Genesee to watch the spindrift and to chase castaway flip flops. The Dood can run down the flotsam we toss, but being only 50% retriever, he hasn’t yet mastered the trick of bringing it back. In any case, with no bathers to bother, it’s an ideal spot for a full throttle chase. A place with […]
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Playing with Advertising
A beautiful collie stands in a meadow of blue and yellow flowers. His brown and white fur blows in the wind. He looks well tempered and loyal. I affectionately call him Sammy, but when I roll him over to rub his belly, I am confronted with an advertisement for Butter-Krust Bread. What gives? Sammy’s more than just a dog; he’s an advertising toy, just one of hundreds of similar toys distributed by businesses as advertisements between 1895 and 1920.
Over […]
Play, Dreamstuff, and Film
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences found themselves in a historicizing mood this year as two films (one showily silent and in black in white, the other in lavish 3D) harked back to the early days of French filmmaking. Between them, The Artist and Hugo, walked away with 10 Oscars.
The two movies put me in mind of that furiously productive era when grown up boys tinkered the modern world into existence. Alexander Graham Bell gave us voice communication, […]
In Honor of Jan Berenstain
I didn’t grow up with the Berenstain Bears—having been born just a little too early—but I more than made up for that omission in my adult years thanks to an opportunity to spend time with Jan Berenstain, author and illustrator for the hundreds of Bears books. Over their long and productive careers, Jan and her late husband, Stan, had saved a collection of almost every drawing they ever made, every story they ever wrote, and every Berenstain Bears product ever […]
Fun with Video Game Versions of Archaeology
Temple Run, an iPhone game, was recently the rage at my son’s school, so he downloaded it to my phone. It’s a basic survival game in which the player, an explorer, flees with the idol from a jungle temple. The game rewards quick decisions as the player tries to stay on the path and jump or slide under obstacles while attempting to outrun a pack of man-eating monkeys. The monkeys always win, but it’s a lot of fun trying to […]
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TASP Play Scholars Gather in Martian Landscape!
Studying play yields crucial insight into fields such as history, psychology, anthropology, biology, dance, ecology, education, ethology, folklore, leisure and recreation studies, musicology, philosophy, psychiatry, developmental psychology, neuroscience, sociology, mathematics, and the arts. There are others, too. In short, play is important. Yet you’ll find no Department of Play Studies at your local university. In fact, no such department exists anywhere. There should be such a thing, of course.
Play Scholars Fraser Brown and Brian Sutton Smith
The closest thing to […]
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Remembering Oz
Is The Wizard of Oz imprinted on your memory? I had a fresh realization of all the ways the classic 1939 movie is ingrained in my own mind when I recently explored The Wizard of Oz exhibit at The Strong’s National Museum of Play.
Growing up in the 1960s, I eagerly anticipated the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz on CBS. Running on a Sunday night from 6 to 8 p.m., the movie made a perfect backdrop for my family’s […]
Punxsutawney Phil, Ritual, and Prognostication as Play
Once heading upward in the enforced conviviality of a chairlift I was so sure I knew the other rider—a jolly, talkative, round-faced fellow—that I asked if we knew each other. We didn’t. He wanted to know if he looked familiar. I said he did as a matter of fact, but something didn’t look right about the ski helmet. “Would it help if you pictured me in a top hat?” he asked. I said, “Where are you from?” “Punxsutawney,” he said.
Ha! […]
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Musick Has Charms to Sooth a Savage Breast
Music is one of the first forms of play we engage in as infants, noted The Strong’s Vice President for Play Studies, Scott G. Eberle, in his American Journal of Play article, “Playing with the Multiple Intelligences: How Play Helps Them Grow.” Music plays a critical role in our development. Our subsequent education practically depends upon it. And, in my experience, so does our health and happiness.
As babies, music can either stimulate or lull us. As we grow, we come […]
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