Gleimous, gloppy goo

The engineers in the basement have set up a giant pit of goo. This is the type of viscous slime which is liquid when allowed to flow freely, but becomes firm when compressed. A handful of this glop is a 3rd-grade fun activity; a ridiculous vat is a university engineering project. Plus they colored it blue.

The engineers are taking turns running across it. With many small, quick steps, it is possible to cross as if on a solid. However, those who step too heavily or linger too long begin to sink, and this stuff is sticky and reluctant to release its gooey grasp on their shoes. The whole floor is lightly tinted blue with the footsteps of the failed goo-walkers.

[Update: photos and video now added below.]

The tub of goo.

Translation: chemical engineers in their final year of undergrad are responsible for this exhibit, made this sign, and are not very good at manual kerning.


One student runs across the puddle.


Another student runs across the puddle.

This post's theme word is gleimous, "full of phlegm." He marveled at the vast expanse of gleimous gunk.

Gloom is delightful

The card game "Gloom," of course. In the spirit (and illustration style) of Edward Gorey, the game progresses as a series of events (some unfortunate, some rather happy) unfold upon the in-game characters. Each player is responsible for the members of a family, and attempts to make their own characters as sad as possible before meeting an untimely (and often hilarious) death, while simultaneously making other players' characters happy.

I just picked up the "Unfortunate Expeditions" expansion. (Who could resist the illustration of tentacly horror?) In perusing the deck of additional cards, I noticed that the new deaths are:

• went down with the ship,
• cashed in his last chip,
• was shredded by a shark,
• disappeared in the dark,
• was sautéed by savages,
• was crushed by cabbages, and
  
• was interred in style.

Notice anything? Why yes, the deaths do occur in rhyming couplets! ... mostly. The anomaly is "was interred in style," which actually is a rather nice death and makes the character happier by 10 units.

I wondered, did the deaths of the original game occur in rhymed pairs? For our mutual edification, I have taken an exhaustive survey, and I find that some of them do:

• was devoured by weasels / was overcome by the measles,
• choked on a bone / died cold and alone,
• drank too much rye / fell from on high / was baked into a pie / was choked on a tie,
• ran out of air / died of despair / was slain by an heir

... and so on. However, some are only half-rhymes at best, or singletons:

• was torn limb from limb / was consumed from within,
• was burnt by a mob / drowned in a bog,
• grew old without grace,
  
• was galled by gangrene

... the last two of these have no partner in rhyming proximity.

The existence of these sets -- pairs, trios, and the rye/high/pie/tie quartet -- means that next time I play, there will be a new rule. If you can kill members of the same family with rhyming deaths, you will gain additional "sadness" units (i.e., negative happy units). I'm thinking of maybe also giving "sadness" points for applying rhyming events to a character, with super bonus sadness units for applying events which rhyme with the character's name.

Now, who wants to play?


This post's theme word is grue, "to shudder." He gave up the ghost with a grue.