What is this about?

In the episode "The Robbery", Jerry and George "choose" each other for the apartment. I am from Australia and I have never heard of this game before. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is and how its played?

In article ,

Don't feel bad. I'm from America and I've never heard of most of those choosing games they play throughout the series. I think some of them probably require growing up in New York in the time of Jerry's childhood to understand.

It's very common way of choosing the person to be "it" in a game of tag or the first in a group to be "whatever", etc. In my group of friends growing up we would put all our fists in a circle and the one doing the counting would touch his chest to count his first fist and so on around the circle. We would do this to the chant "one potato, two potato, three potato-four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato-more." whatever fist was tapped on "more" was eliminated. Another chant was "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, grab a monkey by the toe. If he hollers let him go. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo." However, my parents did not let us say this because it apparently originated with monkey being the "n" word. We were never allowed to do it that way. I grew up in West Virginia, so it's not just a big city thing. Another variation of this is when a baseball bat is tossed to someone and wherever it is caught becomes a starting point for hands to be stacked one on top of each other. the hand that lands on top belongs to the winner. Of course, no matter which method you used some crybaby would always yell foul and either you would make fun of them or give in because it was their ball anyway. <BigGrin> Hope this helps. It's very generational and regional, I guess, but surely all children have experienced a variation of this elimination game at sometime.

Why are you being so snarky?

I guess it's just a part of growing up in America. My friends and I used to do it when we were kids. "Choosing" was how you determined who did what, or who got what, ot whatever. It was just like "paper rock, scizzors", or drawing straws or any other method of selection.

It happened pretty much like you saw in that episode. Everyone put their clenched fists together in a loose circle and someone started the chanting and tapping each fist (or "duke" as we sometimes called it, as in "put your dukes up"), if the rhyme ended on your fist, you put it down, and the chant began again using the remaining fists in the circle. Eventually all but a single fist would be eliminated, and the remaining one was the winner and got whatever was to be gotten, or went wherever it was the winner would go, etc.

I reread the original post and those that came after, and I admit I wasn't straight on what you asked when I answered. "Choosing" as in the episode you mentioned, goes down pretty much the way the other posts described it. What *I* was explaining was the OTHER "choose" from "The Statue" when Jerry helped George and Kramer decide who got to keep the statue. Also, Kramer and Newman went through a similar process to decide who had to drag the rickshaw back from the park in "The Bookstore".

Sorry for the confusion.
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Dave wrote:

Isn't that Inka Dink, which was used in "The Statue"?

On a more mathematical note, in order to make the game fair, the option of putting out zero fingers must be in effect. Otherwise, with only one hand, there are 5 possible numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There are 25 possible sums (although many are repeats, of course). In this case, there are 13 even sums and only 12 odd sums. This makes being the "even" person ever-so-slightly advantageous. However, by having the option of zero fingers, there are 36 sums: 18 even and 18 odd. All is fair. So, if Jerry and George weren't playing with the option of 0, George had a better chance for the apartment with evens, but he still lost!

Sorry for going way out there!

Bill Donovan wrote in message ...

Listen you geek. There is no 3 or 4 or 5 or 0 fingers. It's 1 or 2. Were you ever a freaking kid or what?

In article , "Stephen Lee" wrote:

[email] wrote:

[email] wrote:

Here we have a similar game, with 3 options: scissors (two fingers like a pair of scissors), stone (fist) and paper bag (open hand with all fingers together). If one person shows scissors he wins over the person showing paper bag (scissors can cut paper), but loses against stones (too hard to cut with a pair of scissors). If one person shows stone he looses against a paper bag-showing person, since a paper bag can put the stone inside the bag. This game leaves every one with the same chance of winning. Rackare.

Anv�nd tillbringa!

I guess the "correct" way IS better and simpler, but it works either way.

George and the gang get a ride through the parking garage from the attractive woman after using an opportune opener. But what was it George said to her that made her angry enough to throw them all out of her car? George mumbles something, but I didn't grasp the meaning. Anybody?

Patrick

[email] wrote:

George must have insulted Michelle for saying she was a Scientologist.

George says: I don't even know L. Ron Hubbard...I didn't know you were with that crew...

L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writter who started a religion(?) called Scientology.

see: http://www.xenu.net/archive/FBI/fbi-33.html

    The December 5, 1950 issue of "Look" magazine contained an article
           entitled "Dianetics - Science or Hoax?" which reflected that L. Ron
           Hubbard was an obscure writer of pseudoscientific pulp fiction prior
to
           the publishing of his book entitled "Dianetics." Hubbard's book
asserts
           that "the creation of dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to
his
           discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the
           arch...the intelligent layman can successfully and invariably treat
all
           psychosomatic ills and inorganic aberration, according to Hubbard.
"These
           psychosomatic ills, uniformly ... (from above site)

Bill Donovan wrote:

It was Jerry who said the Scientologists were sensitive.

So here we are - another group (Scientologists) who could complain that Seinfeld has insulted them. But note that in the episode, Michelle the Scientologist, is the only person that would help our friends find their car.

Interestingly enough, there's an article on the Web that mentions Jerry and Scientology. http://shamash.org/jb/bk980508/1sein.htm

"...Although he has kept his conspicuously Jewish name -- and occasionally made headlines dating a younger Jewish woman -- he [Jerry Seinfeld] is intrigued by Eastern religions, and by the pragmatism of the Church of Scientology, he told the Washington Post."

It's a pretty informative article.  Mike, the article includes a LIST of
episodes that deal with Judaic themes, in case you're interested. :)
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Dave wrote:

Very interesting - John Travolta kept his name too, and Kirstie Alley, there must be a lot of them.

AMATEURS!!! Pure amateurs! - They left out: Whatley's conversion, The Fatigues, The lobster scrambled eggs, asking the postman for directions, Astroturf!!, The Pick- do we not bleed!!! etc..and I would not call the Soup Nazi episode a jewish-related theme....

:-)