tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post113102728902782471..comments2024-03-14T16:57:29.045-04:00Comments on Whisky Prajer: NHL Brand-Doctoring and Real Hockey: A Consumer Follow-Updpreimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09905531259256800022noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-1131821019300029092005-11-12T13:43:00.000-05:002005-11-12T13:43:00.000-05:00In my university days, the student pub had a stand...In my university days, the student pub had a stand-up table with a plastic dome. For a quarter we could play for 10 minutes. Seems to me the lads and I would ease our various stages of heartbreak by plugging quarters into the slot and playing "hockey". Certainly, it was more therapeutic than video games, and not nearly so hard on the brain cells as drowning our sorrows (not that the condition of our brain cells ever served as a deterrent to said activity...)Whisky Prajerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14076228013022881173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-1131548247500469882005-11-09T09:57:00.000-05:002005-11-09T09:57:00.000-05:00This post brought back some excellent memories. Ba...This post brought back some excellent memories. Back in the days when Blood Borne Pathogens sounded like the title of the B-movie matched with the first run picture on Saturday afternoon twofer movie day rather than something you nowadays connect with the snap of latex gloves and teammates fleeing from your bleeding presences, we played this game with a box of Band-Aids at the ready and a economy sized glass (what happened to glass?) bottle of mercurochrome. Great product that. How better to treat one’s finger gushing with crimson blood than with a liquid that was neon crimson? And the name, “mercur” as in “mercury” and “chrome” as in “chrome fender”. Poisonous elements to stem the tide of one’s bodily fluids? That sounded logical to me.<BR/>But I digress.<BR/>We lived in New Jersey.<BR/>We were fanatics.<BR/>We were Catholic grammar school boys.<BR/>A 3 headed monster. So, what did that mean?<BR/>We cheated.<BR/>Each guy had his own team. I lucked out and got the Canadiennes. The Habs. Tehe best uniforms, the best names. The Red Wings in their Reds looked like lackluster devils. The Maple Leafs? Come on. Who names their ferocious team after twig droppings? The Rangers? Another poofta name; like Boy Scouts except without the Nazi youth baggage. No, the Habs were the best back then. We’d take our 7 players (remember you had one substitute if a “player” got mangled) home and “prep” them. Solder an extension to the right wing’s stick. Put a curve on the centerman’s stick. Cut off a popsicle stick and glue it to the defenseman’s stick, for added strength since you knew your opponents were altering their wings and center as well.<BR/><BR/>A table hockey unit would last maybe a year and a half. The poles would be bent. The knobs would have been replaced long ago with globs of electrical tape. We’d put mercurochrome (hey, it’s metal, right) on the players, for that added touch. We thought of wearing safety glasses as the pucks would be launched fast and furious from each side of the rink, but that idea remained a thought. Our players didn’t have helmets back then, why should we have any head protective gear? The games were all at a friend’s house, since he had the biggest garage. Detritus of older hockey games gathered dust in a corner. The sound of metal rods ramming back and forth along with mild cursing filled the cold room. Life was simple. Pain was physical and easily swathed in mercurochrome and bandages back then. I’m not clear on the details, but we moved away from the clarity of the company of boys and found ourselves soon after in the company of women, where pain was not physical, where gallons of mercurochrome would not have dulled our pain, and where no bandage was large enough to cover our wounds.DarkoVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11572734667248592785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-1131313957908763192005-11-06T16:52:00.000-05:002005-11-06T16:52:00.000-05:00I loved that game! Always got blasted by my broth...I loved that game! Always got blasted by my brother and cousin, but we spent hours...Cowtown Pattiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07384649567351202679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-1131033649572902452005-11-03T11:00:00.000-05:002005-11-03T11:00:00.000-05:00They're pretty tough on the pocket book, is what t...They're pretty tough on the pocket book, is what they are. Actually, last Christmas Costco was carrying an NHL endorsed stand-up table with rubber grips you could barely get your mitts around. $200, if I remember rightly. I took hold of a defence-man's controls, tested the action and ... broken!! Couldn't twist in either direction! Seems to me Costco didn't sell too many of those games...Whisky Prajerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14076228013022881173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-1131033100498642662005-11-03T10:51:00.000-05:002005-11-03T10:51:00.000-05:00Admit it: the real thing holding you back is that ...Admit it: the real thing holding you back is that you just know you're going down! Or was it the other way around? Yeah, sigh, it was.<BR/><BR/>The free standing arcade style versions look pretty tough. But are they three decades tough?Trent Reimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11856687416662007848noreply@blogger.com