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June 2, 2011 4:31 PM Subscribe
George Plimpton's Video Falconry Now you too can play the legendary game. [Gawk in splendor at the television ad.]
Glorious. That's some good archaeology right there.
posted by inturnaround at 4:39 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by inturnaround at 4:39 PM on June 2, 2011
The flash game is worth it alone for the hilarious 5 minute intro.
posted by ShawnStruck at 4:47 PM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ShawnStruck at 4:47 PM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is pretty sweet.
posted by klangklangston at 4:56 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by klangklangston at 4:56 PM on June 2, 2011
GREAT FALCONRY!
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:00 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:00 PM on June 2, 2011
So I take it this is the video game adaptation of his 1964 bestseller Hawking a Big One: My Six Weeks on the Arabian Falconry Circuit?
posted by villanelles at dawn at 5:37 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by villanelles at dawn at 5:37 PM on June 2, 2011
Great fake.
posted by PHINC at 6:12 PM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by PHINC at 6:12 PM on June 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
Did it come as a shock to anyone else that George Plimpton was a legit writer? Between these ads and his appearances on The Disney Channel, I grew up believing that he was some actor with an accent who was hired out to be incongrously intellectual.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:14 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by pxe2000 at 6:14 PM on June 2, 2011
Dude was on Married...With Children, too? Whiskey tango foxtrot, Batman.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:15 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by pxe2000 at 6:15 PM on June 2, 2011
THE SPORT OF KINGS!!!
posted by benzenedream at 6:23 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by benzenedream at 6:23 PM on June 2, 2011
I am so delighted this has made it here. I've been enjoying its unlikely progress around the web for the past few weeks.
By the way, here's a little background on the Sidd finch, one of the noble Northeastern birds referenced in the game.
posted by neroli at 6:46 PM on June 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
By the way, here's a little background on the Sidd finch, one of the noble Northeastern birds referenced in the game.
posted by neroli at 6:46 PM on June 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
I just realized that George Plimpton and Bill Plympton are not the same person. I need a do-over on my whole life.
posted by cmoj at 7:22 PM on June 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by cmoj at 7:22 PM on June 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
10 key on the laptop finally pays off!!!
posted by hankscorpio83 at 8:52 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by hankscorpio83 at 8:52 PM on June 2, 2011
Thank you cmoj. I've seen a couple of references to this Falconry thing in the last few days and I keep clicking thinking, "When does the animation start?!?"
posted by artychoke at 9:02 PM on June 2, 2011
posted by artychoke at 9:02 PM on June 2, 2011
You have entered: power drive. Now push: 7 8 7 to swing. Ball is in: parking lot. Would you like to play again? You have selected: no.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 9:24 PM on June 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 9:24 PM on June 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
I always thought of George Plimpton as a sports fan who made a career out of reporting on what it would be like to be an actual professional athlete in different sports during the 60s and early 70s.
From wikipedia:
... Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. In 1960, prior to the second of baseball's two All-Star games, Plimpton pitched against the National League. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, while on assignment for Sports Illustrated.
In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback and ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion which was later adapted into a feature film starring Alan Alda, released in 1968. Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971,[17] this time joining the Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, Mad Ducks and Bears, although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades of football friends such as Alex Karras and Bobby Layne. Another sports book, Open Net, saw him train as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, even playing part of a National Hockey League pre-season game.
Plimpton's classic The Bogey Man chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials. After being demolished at tennis by Pancho Gonzales, he wrote that he considered himself to be a fairly accomplished tennis player and that the drubbing by Gonzales was the most surprising of his ventures against the great athletes of his time.
A 6 November 1971 cartoon in The New Yorker by Whitney Darrow, Jr. shows a cleaning lady on her hands and knees scrubbing an office floor while saying to another one: "I'd like to see George Plimpton do this sometime." In another cartoon in The New Yorker, a patient looks up at the masked surgeon about to operate on him and asks, "Wait a minute! How do I know you're not George Plimpton?"[18] A feature in Mad Magazine titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a day with Jerry Lewis.
I was very surprised to find out years later that he was a serious writer who started The Paris Review.
posted by marsha56 at 2:09 AM on June 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
From wikipedia:
... Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. In 1960, prior to the second of baseball's two All-Star games, Plimpton pitched against the National League. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, while on assignment for Sports Illustrated.
In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback and ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion which was later adapted into a feature film starring Alan Alda, released in 1968. Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971,[17] this time joining the Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, Mad Ducks and Bears, although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades of football friends such as Alex Karras and Bobby Layne. Another sports book, Open Net, saw him train as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, even playing part of a National Hockey League pre-season game.
Plimpton's classic The Bogey Man chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials. After being demolished at tennis by Pancho Gonzales, he wrote that he considered himself to be a fairly accomplished tennis player and that the drubbing by Gonzales was the most surprising of his ventures against the great athletes of his time.
A 6 November 1971 cartoon in The New Yorker by Whitney Darrow, Jr. shows a cleaning lady on her hands and knees scrubbing an office floor while saying to another one: "I'd like to see George Plimpton do this sometime." In another cartoon in The New Yorker, a patient looks up at the masked surgeon about to operate on him and asks, "Wait a minute! How do I know you're not George Plimpton?"[18] A feature in Mad Magazine titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a day with Jerry Lewis.
I was very surprised to find out years later that he was a serious writer who started The Paris Review.
posted by marsha56 at 2:09 AM on June 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
I have been listening to the Hodgman podcast since episode 1, and have really enjoyed being in on the ground floor of an internet joke. It has very, very rarely happened for me (although due to the magic of Metafilter, I can be behind a joke by days or weeks or months and still look like Power Nerd amongst my Facebook friends).
posted by norm at 8:06 AM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by norm at 8:06 AM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
Finally got to the "The Widening Gyre-Yeats Bonus Round," which is extra tough because none of the controls work.
posted by drezdn at 9:47 AM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by drezdn at 9:47 AM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by drezdn at 4:36 PM on June 2, 2011 [4 favorites]