Games in the classroom

As a reward for good behaviour, Biggie's teachers decided that the class would have a games day to celebrate the end of the term. Initially it was going to be all boardgames, all the time, but lots of the children wanted to bring their own games to school, so 'our' part of the day was cut back to two hours.

After much consideration, I cut the list of games to take back to around 17. Gregor had kindly offered to help out, and he brought a couple as well, although we found there was less time to talk than we had expected.

We started the day by talking about games - what makes a game a game? First response: "It's about having fun with your friends and spending time with them" - how can I top that?!

Next, we talked about rules for games. There was a lot of discussion about cheating and why that's not acceptable. I used as a basis the rules that Giles Pritchard has suggested - although I condensed them to a few major points:

• Board games are games; the idea of playing them is to have fun in good company.
• You must listen to the rules explainer.
• Cheating is admitting defeat and is completely unacceptable. If a person in a game you are playing is caught cheating the game should be ended immediately and a new game begun – with the promise that cheating will not occur.
• Always treat the game and the game pieces better than you would treat your own game. – After you have finished playing the game there should be no sign that you played it except for a pleasant memory.
• Setting up and cleaning up are a part of the game, you need to do your share.
• Be a good loser and an even better winner.

We summed them all up with the Knizia quote, which we put up on the board as a motto for the day:

“When playing a game the goal is to win,
but it is the goal that is important, not the winning”

I had planned for this to lead into a discussion of how games have designers just like books have authors, but the natives were getting a little restless so we jumped straight into theme, as a way to introduce the first batch of games.

I'd prepared a quick table of the games that I'd taken with a quick overview of each for me, Gregor and the teacher.

Here's what I had about the themed games:

Game	Number of Players	Notes
Incan Gold (Alan R Moon and Bruno Faidutti)	3-8	EXPLORERS! Explore a ruined temple and collect treasures – but if you go too far you might lose it all! 5 explorations = 1 game. Disasters only count the second time.
For Sale (Stefan Dorra)	3-6	GET RICH! Buy and sell property – the winner is the person with the most money at the end. Part 1: Auction properties (buy with money) Part 2: Sell properties (for cheques).
Hey that’s my fish (Günter Cornett & Alvydas Jakeliunas)	2-4	PENGUINS! The players are penguins, trying to catch as many fish as possible. Strategy is to isolate an area from the other players.
Fearsome Floors (Friedemann Friese)	2-7	MONSTER! Race game – players have 14 turns to escape from the monster. Part 1: Eliminated pieces are returned to the player. Ends when all but 2 tiles have been turned over Part 2: Eliminated pieces are eliminated forever.
Cartagena (Leo Colovini)	2-5	PIRATES! Play cards to move forward to the next empty square with a matching symbol Move backwards to an occupied square to collect 1 or 2 more cards.
Pick Picknic (Stefan Dorra)	2-6	CHICKENS! Players compete to get the most food – but are they a corn-eating chicken or a chicken-eating fox?
Pickomino (Reiner Knizia)	2-7	CHICKENS! But this time it’s worms that they want. Yahtzee-style dice game. Remember: You MUST have rolled a worm before you can pick up a tile. Fast rules: Turn over highest tile AND the tile that is returned.

and some others that I took out at that stage:

Game	Number of Players	Notes
Sherlock	2-6+	Memory game testing out-of-sequence memory
Apples to Apples Junior	4-10	All players have 5 red cards; take turns to be the judge (flip a green card). Best red card match gets the green card – winner is first to 4.
Ingenious (Reiner Knizia)	1-4	Match the pattern to place tiles & score in 6 different colours Only your LOWEST score counts! Use paper scoresheets instead of wooden cubes

The children separated into four groups.

• Gregor took a group of girls who were desperate to play For Sale. This was a huge hit with the kids - at the end of the session, they begged me to leave it so they could play it again.
• I took a group of girls and boys who were interested in Fearsome Floors. It was very popular but the kids found it a bit too complicated, especially when I had to move away for a little while
• The teacher sat down with a group of boys who were very interested in Apples to Apples. This was amazing - they played it for over an hour!
• Biggie sat on the floor to teach Pickomino - it seemed to go over very well, too, although I didn't hear any chicken noises from the group.

Meanwhile, one boy was roaming the classroom with Incan Gold in hand, not wanting to play anything else, and another girl was wandering around watching but not wanting to join in.

My Fearsome Floors group moved on to Sherlock and Otto, who had been playing Catch the Match quietly by herself, came to join in. She was pretty pleased to finish in second place in the group of five eight to ten year olds. Meanwhile Gregor had enticed the For Sale girls to play Incan Gold (by promising another game of For Sale later on in the day). Surprisingly, this wasn't much of a hit - they were too interested in getting back to For Sale to enjoy Incan Gold.

I'd prepared some journal pages for the students to reflect on the games they played in between new games. These were filled in with differing levels of detail and success, but with some great answers:

Game	Rating	What I Liked	Something I Learned	Next time I will
Apples to Apples	8	That it had a lot of risk	That you can do opposites	Have a lot of fun!
Make ‘n’ Break	10	It was VERY fun.	It was constructive	Have a lot of fun!
For Sale		It is really fun and I bought a lot of houses	Money!	Do better
Incan Gold		It was really fun	Take your chances	Get more jewels
Pickomino	7	The temptation!	It’s hard!	Play better (hopefully)
Incan Gold		The temptation	That it’s easy to lose	Play with more people and have more fun
Pickomino	10	The temptation and the worms	How lucky you can be!!	Not so much of risk taker
Apples to apples	4	It was funny	That you don’t need to be honest
Apples to Apples	10	It was funny	You don’t need to be honest	Be better
Polarity	6	It was a challenge		Be better
Dancing eggs	9.5	I liked how it was really hard and a challenge to do the actions. I WON!	Never think that anything’s easy	Do the exact same thing!
Finstere Flure	9 Excellent	It was so scary how the monster walked to try and eat you up!	X	Try to go first so I don’t get locked in! (by the other players’ pieces)
Sherlock	5 OK	How you had to use your memory	X	Try to remember much, much more
Fearsome Floors		There was a monster	You don’t always need a dice	Try to win
Sherlock		I WON!!!	You need a REALLY good memory	I’ll win AGAIN.
For Sale		It’s fun and I got to buy good houses	How to sell houses	Not spend too much money
Incan Gold		It was fun	Take your chance	Do something

We came back together as a group to discuss the games we'd played, and what skills we had been using.

• Memory (heh - I pointed out that Otto had come second)
  
• Deciding when to take a risk
• Spending your money
• Opposites (this from the Apples to Apples group, who had played some rounds looking for something that was unlike the faced card)
• Dividing up the treasures
  

To finish up, I took out some games that used a skill that we hadn't used yet: dexterity. We had two groups playing Tier auf Tier, one playing Make 'n' Break and one playing Dancing Eggs - and a copy of Polarity for everyone to try out.

Game	Rating	What I Liked	Something I Learned	Next time I will
Dancing Eggs	5	Dancing eggs was a really fun game
Animal on animal		Stacking animal	How to stacking animals	Try harder
Tier auf Tier		It’s easy	The rules	Try harder
Polarity	9	It was a huge challenge because if the slightest thing was out of place it would fall	I learnt about magnets and balance!	Try and get three!

Overall, the day was a huge success. The teacher liked games, the journal pages, and the way the kids were engaged. Best of all - they're all (teacher and students) keen to do it again :)

To sum up the session:

What I liked

• Having someone (Gregor) to help demo the games was invaluable.
• The game journal pages worked well and made a great record of the day (where they were used)
• Finishing with dexterity games was fantastic, although Dancing Eggs got a bit rowdy
  

Something I learned

• Games work best with supervision - especially if they have a mechanic the kids haven't seen before (eg Finstere Flure)
• It's difficult to involve some kids in the classroom activity, even if they are interested in the material
• Having games that use a range of different skills works well for the larger groups
  

Next time I will

• Try to take fewer games (I say this every time)
• Introduce the game journal pages at the start of the session rather than as games finish.
  

Thoughts on Princes of Florence

I was recently lucky enough to get in my first game of the popular The Princes of Florence boardgame. It has a lot going for it and, like all really good games, consumed all my waking thoughts for several hours after it finished.

For those unfamiliar with the game, there are seven turns during the game, with each turn having an auction phase and then an action phase where each player gets to perform two actions. This is very similar to another game I enjoy, Goa. The object of the game is to play profession cards (like “Bell Maker” or “Alchemist”) which then produce a Work which gives a player a combination of money and victory points. When a Work is played (as one of a player’s two actions), that work provides an amount of money and/or points depending on what that player has built up in and around their villa. The theme here is that the players are trying to attract the best talent by building and acquiring buildings, landscape, and “Freedoms” (freedom of opinion, religion, and travel, all of which supposedly inspire various artisans to more impressive works.) So, if I play the Bell Maker, I would earn a better work if I had the Workshop, a local forest, and if I had freedom of religion. Having only some of those items makes the value of the card less. There are also some wildcard items that help improve every work. Jesters provide two work points to any played Work, and the number of played AND unplayed profession cards held by a player also add one work point each. I guess the thinking here is that artisans like to work together, and they’re easily amused by jesters…

Buildings and freedoms can be purchased using cash during one of a player’s two actions per turn, but landscape tiles (3 different types) and jesters can only be bought at auction. (Remember there are only 7 turns in the entire game, so there are only so many jesters and landscape tiles to go around.) Auctions are even more tight because there are three more things that can be bought: builders (which reduce building costs), recruitment cards (which you exchange with any played profession card so you can get the same “work” made – and also count as profession cards in your hand to give +1 to your work score), and Prestige cards. Prestige cards are like special little mission cards that give you bonus points at the end of the game if you fulfill the mission (like most landscape, most jesters, one of each freedom, etc…)

Along with the seven auctions, players have 2 actions per turn and must use those 14 total actions wisely. Building a building, buying a freedom, and playing a profession to create a work all take an action. Players can also buy a bonus card, these cards are similar to theme to the prestige cards, but are played with a profession card to increase the value of a work. Typical bonus cards might give a +1 bonus for each building, +2 for each large building, +1 for each profession card in your hand, etc…) A final action is the purchase of more profession cards. Most players will want to play a work nearly every round, so that limits your available actions to something more like 8. If you are thinking to yourself that this is a very “tight” game if you only get 7 auctions and about 8 non-work-creating actions, you are only hitting the tip of the iceburg.

Everything about this game screams limited resources. Players start with a good wad of cash (enough to last three turns even if you bid large sums during the auction), but soon they will find that they are running low. Since a played work card provides either cash or victory points (usually a combination of the two – player’s choice) using less cash means scoring more points. Secondly, there is the aforementioned very limited number of actions a player can perform during the game. With only 7 auctions and 8 to 10 “free” actions to play with, players have got to make every decision count. To make matters worse, there is not enough of everything to go around. There are only 6 of each of most of the auction items. So, only 6 jesters, 6 builders, 6 forests, etc… to go around. In a five player game, that means competition for each of those items will be pretty tight. Note that two strategies include multiple jesters or multiple builders so they can be particularly highly coveted. There are 3 types of freedoms and always one less of each freedom than there are players, so some of those are purchased rather fast. While less of an issue for 3 or 4 players, in a five player game, even the profession cards (and thus the recruitment cards as well) tend to run out after a round or two. This is very significant, since playing profession cards is the primary way to score points and the only way to earn more cash.

As if all this competition for resources isn’t enough, every player has to manage one more resource, space. Each player has a playing mat with space on it for placing their purchased buildings and landmarks. They come in Tetris-type pieces of varying sizes and shapes. Nothing can ever be destroyed or moved on your mat, so placing your purchases wisely is very important. Buildings, in particular, are tricky as they tend to be rather large, and no two buildings can touch, except at the corners. However, buying a second builder allows a player to place buildings touching each other. (As buildings give 3 victory points per built building, one strategy is to get three builders which gives a player the ability to place adjacent buildings and makes their cost for free.)

While I’ve only played the game once, it has already gripped my imagination. The many, many constraints in the game make playing it a very tense proposition for me. Also, since there is a large auction portion to the game, it is best when players have experienced it once or twice before to be sure the prices are held up to a reasonable level and no one is getting a total “steal” for a given item. I can’t help but compare it to the boardgame Goa, which also has auctions and then somewhat interaction-less player actions. I find the theme and mechanisms of Princes of Florence to be drier and more abstract, with a slightly less “rich” tree of options to specialize in or explore, but I think Princes of Florence will play in a slightly shorter amount of time. Clearly there is a build-up of power throughout the game, and there are several distinct strategies to exploit in the race to win – both are qualities that I seek in a more meaty game. I highly recommend fans of Goa to seek this one out and give it a try.

For those curious few, yes I did win my first game and that may have clouded my current perceptions, but there are a lot of things here that hit home as elements I like in my games. My winning strategy for the evening was really a diverse one, where I simply tried to buy whatever I could during the auction at bargain-basement prices. Thus, I spent a lot less effort on replenishing my cash on hand and was able to instead constantly cash in my works for victory points. Surprisingly, the game was close at the very end, with one player (using the jester strategy) starting very, very far behind but closing quite fast at the end. The prestige cards help to make the final scoring interesting as no one knows the real final scores until they’re revealed.

GenCon Trade Day

As a teacher, I’m always on the lookout for games that could possibly be used in class. Unfortunately, I’m a high school science teacher, which significantly reduces the possibilities. If I were a social studies teacher, I could look to card-driven historical games which are in a mini renaissance at the moment with games like Here I Stand and Twilight Struggle having significant historical content. (In fact, the historical event cards made my wife a fan of the area control/light wargame Twilight Struggle. One of the upper level teachers in my building has a home-brewed World War II game that is played over several weeks as part of a modern history class. I believe this is the same instructor who does a class-wide simulation of the oil rush along with barons and shady dealing.

So, without wars and historical events to bring a game into my classroom, I settle for those games in my collection that either encourage logic and reasoning or have a decent level of science-related theme. Logic games are quite popular, the two most common styles come as puzzle-type games like Rocochet Robot and Fearsome Floors or deduction games like Zendo and Mystery of the Abbey. Of these, I think I enjoy the pure logic/deduction rulemaking found in Zendo the best. If I taught Biology, I might be able to justify bringing in a few of my biologically themed boardgames like Evo or Wildlife.

It seems that most games with a biological theme tend to take advantage of the species evolution style of play. Evo, Wildlife, and my favorite Primordial Soup all have players trying to grow and diversify a race of creatures by reproducing as well as granting new species abilities. However, there are a few gems that stand alone with strong biological themes without the evolution aspect. Of these, the most notable is probably Reef Encounter. I consider my copy of the game the cornerstone of my collection. I paid a pretty penny to get it imported from Essen, so I have a “nonstandard” edition, but the theme simply shouts style and uniqueness. When I tell people I have a game that involves players growing and invading each other’s coral reefs via polyps and guardian shrimp, they smile and nod benignly. That one statement is enough to explain that YES, I have a lot of weird games.

All this educational game discussion brings me to the title of my post. I recently received a press release from Gencon announcing Gen Con Trade Day. What is it, you ask? It is a special day set aside for “game industry” people. While I’m sure retailers and game companies will appreciate the additional assistance they will be given for getting their jobs done, a third segment of the day will be targeted at librarians and educators. This is quite exciting to me, and I hope that fellow educators will be able to take advantage of it. While there isn’t much information to go on, so far, I will do my best to try to attend, if only to see what direction the future holds. I expect the main challenge will be to convince teachers and other educators to actually attend the event. From what I read on the internet, there seems to be quite a number of teacher-types who enjoy boardgaming as a hobby. I’m sure many of them will show as a part of their GenCon experience, but here’s hoping we can get some additional folks onboard who would otherwise never see any part of GenCon. I, for one, promise not to scare any of them off by dressing as my favorite Meeple.

Gardner and the Multiple Intelligences of Boardgames

One of the most valuable concepts that Biggie has learned in three and a bit years of school can be summed up in one small quote: “I accept your apology.”

When I was at school, the vast majority of our learning was “curriculum material” – English, maths, science, and so on. These days, though, the teaching encompasses areas that may not be part of the typical curriculum. Take “I accept your apology,” for example – I remember being informed by a grave-faced 6 year old that you should NEVER say “That’s okay” when someone apologises, because it WASN’T okay at all when they did it. This is the overt discussion that is helping our children to interact better with others and become more confident in those interactions and more assertive in their relationships..

Leading on from this, Biggie’s class’s main focus for the term is “How we learn”. They’ve been talking overtly about how they approach tasks, as well as more explicit discussion about learning. Last week, she came home with a set of categories that describe the way children learn – clearly based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.


Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard, believed that traditional definitions of intelligence were too limited. He suggested a set of seven different types of intelligence:

• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Spatial intelligence
• Verbal or Linguistic intelligence

Later, Gardner suggested an eighth intelligence be added to the set:

• Naturalistic intelligence

There is also discussion of a possible ninth “Existentialist” intelligence – defined as “asking the big questions”. In the classroom, this led to the following conversation:

L (child in the class): “Why are we even learning about
this?”

Biggie (smartass in the making): “If you ask that, then you
are an existentialist learner.”

Now, I’m a novice at Gardner and at educational psychology, but it is interesting to apply Gardner’s theories to games – more specifically, to classify games into these ‘intelligence’ categories. This may also help to suggest why some people are naturally drawn to games where others lack interest, and why different gamers are drawn to different types of game.

Bodily-Kinaesthetic intelligence

These people learn best by using their body. This is the home of dexterity games – Make ‘n’ Break, Bamboleo, Tier auf Tier, Carabande, Hamsterrolle. Also of children’s games like Dancing Eggs and Balance. This is a very under-represented part of Fraser’s and my games collection, and one which I’m trying to build up at the moment.

Interpersonal intelligence

This category is concerned with the ability of the individual to relate to others – to “understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people.” I think this is the province of co-operative games (including those with a traitor, like Shadows over Camelot) as well as ‘psychology’ games like Werewolf. This is also where the diplomacy elements in negotiation and alliance-building games like Diplomacy belongs.

Intrapersonal intelligence

This is the ability to understand yourself and your own motivations and desires. It’s also my stumbling block – I can’t think of a single game that you play with yourself in order to get to know yourself better! Except for working out whether you cheat, that is …

Logical-mathematical intelligence

According to Gardner, this ability enables someone to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. As well as games addressing direct mathematical concepts like Halli Galli and Plus and Minus, the deductive quality of this ‘intelligence’ includes games like Cluedo (Clue) or Mystery of the Abbey.

Musical intelligence

This is the intelligence associated with recognising musical notes and patterns. I found it hard to identify games in this domain, but I think that listening games like Igloo Pop and Hear ‘n’ Seek probably fit this category. Musical trivia games would also suit this category.

Spatial intelligence

This is the ability to recognise and use patterns. I’d say that Carcassonne and other tile-laying games fit this category very clearly. Other games that include a spatial element include movement planning games like The Amazing Labyrinth and Fearsome Floors as well as games with limited playing area like Princes of Florence. And I think this is also the place for Blink and Set. (Is it also the place for Settlers? I think so)

Verbal or linguistic intelligence

It’s easy to find games that explore verbal or linguistic intelligence. Apples to Apples, Attribut, Scrabble, Boggle, Scattergories spring to mind immediately, but there are so many word games out there it would take days to list them all.

Naturalistic intelligence

This is the “nature smarts” intelligence, and seems to be less clearly defined than the other intelligences that Gardner identifies. I can think of games with a theme of nature, but I’m drawing a blank in identifying games that actually apply the skills of naturalistic intelligence (“a proficiency in identifying, understanding, organizing, and classifying patterns in the natural environment or the plant, animal and human world.”) – and I need to read more about this intelligence to see whether general classification and organisation skills are included here (and, if so, what its relation to logical/mathematical intelligence would be). It's possible that the "guess the animal's bottom" game that I picked up today (Popolino, from Selecta - not yet on the 'Geek) might fit this category.

Existential intelligence

The ability to be sensitive to, or have the capacity for, conceptualizing or tackling deeper or larger questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why are we born, why do we die, what is consciousness, or how did we get here. Again, I’m not sure that this is reflected in any games – or maybe I’m playing the wrong kids of games!

Of course, individual games don’t belong to one category exclusively. I proposed Apples to Apples as a verbal/linguistic game, but it’s definitely also a game of interpersonal skills, guessing which card the judge will pick. Similarly, Attribut is a verbal/linguistic game with bodily-kinaesthetic elements (grabbing the card first) as well as interpersonal elements. Make ‘n’ Break involves pattern recognition (spatial) as well as dexterity (bodily/kinaesthetic skills) and many games involve interpersonal skills, not only in negotiating but also in predicting what others will do.

Sources & Further reading:

• http://adulted.about.com/cs/learningtheory/a/gardner_MIT.htm
• http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm
• http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/links/newerviews.htm#Howard_Gardner_-_Multiple_Intelligences
• http://www.tech4learning.com/pdfs/claykit/engaging_multiple_intelligences.pdf
• http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/mi/index.html
• http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/w1-resources.html
• http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm
• http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L2-4GardenerMultipleIntelligences.html
• http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

Learn History Through Games

This week we were pointed to a site with a discussion which was inspired by Matthew Baldwin’s list of the 100 best games. One comment caught my eye and made me think: “…it’s hard enough getting adults to play a board game anyway, much less one with the unappealing and sounds – boring – as – all – (expletive deleted) title of ‘Age of Steam.’ .”

I would think that a man would be curious, at least, about a game centered around the age of steam. There are many museums dedicated to steam-powered machines and they attract a lot of visitors interested in the mechanics of these wonderful machines. Why doesn’t the name of the game conjure images of massive steam locomotives, their tracks being laid by the muscle and sweat of men instead of sounding “boring”?

I suppose, to the uninitiated, the titles of some of our favorite games aren’t as appealing as Sorry, The Game of Life, Clue, Connect Four, etc., etc., but to me they suggest a visit to another place or time—of course, I’m tainted. Many of our games are inspired by actual people, places, times or events so that we occasionally get a bit of a history lesson just by opening the box.

Wallenstein is a game which centers on the Thirty Years War. It comes with an historical booklet and each character’s card has a short biography for those who are interested in the background of the theme. But of course, war games are an obvious history lesson. I love to read the historical background for each of the scenarios in Memoir ’44.

Most games don’t come with a packaged history but you may be curious enough to do some research. Google “Stephsons Rocket” and you’ll find many sites with information on this innovative steam engine design. Perhaps you wonder how closely the game of Puerto Rico reflects the history of the island. There are several sites which can sharpen your historical knowledge. A search for “Tikal” will show you some wonderful photos and maps of the archaeological site. And I’m guessing that most of us know that Carcassonne is a real place, a fortified city in southern France.

Hansa was designed around the Hanseatic League, a group of merchant associations in the cities of Northern Germany and the Baltic. At one time there was a very nice article on BGG explaining how well the game mechanics reflected the actual history of the time but, sadly, I couldn’t find it.

I think we’re lucky to be able not only to sharpen our brains but broaden our knowledge through the games that we play. It’s a shame that some people are put off by something simply because they are ignorant of the subject matter.
~~~~~~~

Last week I put in an order for Hacienda and Das Ende Des Triumvirats, both not in stock until (probably) after Christmas. That’s it! I’m not buying any more games this year!

That puts this year’s game acquisitions at 39. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? So I’ve decided that I don’t want to hear or read about any great games that I don’t already own. No checking the new reviews on BGG, no reading of BoardGameNews, no checking the online retailers to see what’s new in stock and I refuse to listen to my internet friends discuss the pros and cons of games they like. Don’t tempt me, don’t inform me, don’t dangle that gaming-carrot in front of my face. (Side note from the daughter: “Yeah-that’ll happen!”)

While I’ll never be content to play the same 10 games over and over, I really do have enough games to satisfy even my love of variety. I have games easy enough to use when introducing someone new to gaming, I have light, fun games, I have many medium-weight games and a few heavier games. I should be set for whoever enters my door.

I’m sharing this early New Year’s resolution with all of you so you can join my daughter in saying, “Yeah, right” when you find out I’ve placed another order. Let’s see…I still haven’t broken down and bought Colovini’s Alexandros, I’d love to have the new version of Oltremare and that Hey! That’s My Fish might be a nice, quick play for Richard and me. Eep! I have to go call my psychiatrist now, Dr. Meepolous.
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Until next time remember, sometimes you just have to bow to the absurd.

Mary