Great minds think alike

[keladry_lupin]

I stopped by co-worker Diane's cubicle to ask her a question about microfiche. Twenty minutes and five topics of conversation later, she thought of a game that she's had stashed away in one of her bookcases. She pulls out this flat box that says Blick on it. Inside is a tray and a little pink ... thing with a face on it. This thingy is Mr Blick, she tells me, and he rolls around the tray like some kind of jumping bean. (I think there's a magnet inside, but I can't really tell how many magnets, or how it works -- no batteries, and there's no metal in the tray.) There's a shallow dimple in the center of the tray, and the idea is to maneuver this crazily-wobbling thing so that it will rest in the center. Take a look.

The longer that Diane and I watched this, the more we thought about it ... and the funnier it got. I mean, look at the photo:

The shape and color.

It seems to have a mind of its own.

The object of the game is to get it into a hole.

And once it's in there, the game is over.

Diane and I never flat-out said any of the above, but we didn't need to. All it took was watching it for a minute or two, a few carefully-chosen comments, and then eye contact. We were both in hysterics. At one point, she did manage to get him into place, but he was at a bit of a tilt ... we felt rather sorry for him.