ADVANCED
FlavourTripping Intrigued? Ahem. Let me put my lab coat on. Okay, miracle fruit is a plant native to West Africa that temporarily causes your taste buds to perceive sour things, like lemons, as sweet. It is not a psychoactive drug. It contains a certain molecule that temporarily binds with the sweet receptors on your tongue, and as a result sensations of sour are perceived as being insanely sweet. SERIOUSLY. Serve up a platter of fruit — lemons, grapes, rhubarb, grapefruit, pineapple, lime, and, for the more adventurous, maybe some pickles, sauerkraut and other weird sour things. The effects last about an hour. We ordered the Frooties brand off the web, and it arrived in a few weeks. The New York Times did a great feature on flavour-tripping with miracle fruit a few years ago (www.goo.gl/pm0vd), if you want to read more.
INTERMEDIATE
Arm Wrestling People enjoy arm wrestling. Even the people who say they don’t like arm wrestling like arm wrestling. Especially when they win. An important part of hosting an armwrestling gathering is hype. First send out a message for each invitee to submit their arm-wrestling handle for their would-be arm-wrestling character (or threaten to run an online wrestling name generator for them at www.wrestlingname.com). This gets them thinking, their arms flexing, and their alteregos start to take shape. Using these names we put together an oldtimey-looking wrestling poster with pictures of our friends’ heads on wrestler bodies. We called it Arm Fight Club. You’ll need an announcer and a ref, and maybe some good intro music for wrestlers as the strut onto the battlefield. The rest is history. For the serious among you, check out this website for actual arm wrestling rules: www. armpullers.com. More suggestions? Leave ‘em at thescope.ca
DECEMBER 2012 & january 2013
thescope
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