NEXT STOP, HAVANA  Robert Birnbaum blogs on all things literary at "Our Man in Boston" »
The Morning News

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Currently:
» Advertise on TMN via the Deck
July 12, 2002

Kubb

I am not very athletic. I’m currently learning how to play basketball, a sport my fiancée and her entire family are very good at. (They favor college basketball, Tarheels particularly, with good reason: Both parents work at U.N.C, one went to U.N.C, fiancée went to U.N.C, brother goes to U.N.C for his second doctor plaque, family has U.N.C basketball season tickets, father and brother play basketball every week…you can see where this leads. Case-in-point: Upon hearing that his daughter and I are engaged, fiancée’s father quite charmingly told me, ‘Rosecrans, it takes a special kind of man to love his son-in-law, especially when that son-in-law knows nothing about U.N.C basketball.’)

I also run and I’ve recently bought a pass for 10 yoga classes, but, fair to say, sports aren’t really my thing.

Then there is Kubb.

Kubb is an old Swedish lawn game, informally known as ‘throwing logs.’ That’s the entire game, actually: you have six wooden dowels that you throw at five wooden blocks. If your team can knock over the other team’s blocks, you have a chance at knocking over the King (which has to be knocked over by a pin thrown through the legs). If you knock over the King, you win.

There are many people in Williamsburg and Greenpoint who find this incredibly amusing. They’re used to seeing bocce, or softball, even kite-flying in the park, but a group of twenty-somethings tossing wood at one another is enough to stop and wonder at.

Thanks to Petter, for bringing this game to Brooklyn.

Preparing to throw

 

The correct spinning toss

 

White glove optional

 

The King left standing

 

White glove stored in pocket

 

Kids like Kubb

 

The only way to topple the King

 

McLaren Park

 

An extremely fortunate stack

 

Swedish King

 




TODAY’S FEATURE

God Save the Queen From You Chumps

Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, Englishman JONATHAN BELL defends his nation against a cursing student of Anglo-Saxons.

out-mothered

The Mommy Wars

Non-Expert Jessica Francis Kane leads her followers into the battle of the playground.

THE FOOTNOTES TOO

Infinite Summer

All summer long, take part in an endurance read of Infinite Jest, sponsored by TMN.
» JOIN UP

DIGEST

No Take Backs

Recently unmasked producer Burial joins his old schoolmate Four Tet on a cryptically released 12-inch. The result is two post-rock peregrinations sure to set your perceptions on edge.