Cap'n Pete Straw

If you have 4 players, each with 5 dice, then there are twenty dice on the table. The final number counts ALL the dice. YOUR five (which you know) and the other 15 which were previously unrevealed to you. In your example, the player to the left should not have challenged you, if you said "2 fives" and he had two fives, then he is the ONLY person who knew that you were not lying. But, according to your example (and IGNORING wild card "skulls"), you said "2 fives." All the dice were revealed. There are THREE fives total. The (stupid) person to your left called you a liar -- but with a total of three fives on the table you were NOT lying, so HE is the loser, and YOU are the winner. If we are counting the wild card skulls, then the single skull you counted from the "other players " counted as an additional five. Therefore, the final legitimate total would have been FOUR fives. If, however, someone had bid FIVE fives (or SIX fives), and called on it, they would have been the loser (liar). Does this help?

Yes -- me neither.

Someone offered the obvious answer to this one much earlier in this thread.

Band Aid

Maybe this belongs in the "RAIDS" section... Our neighborhood block party was last night. My son was paid $50 to make balloon animals (theoretically, this was his first "real" job). But we also ran a Liar's Dice tale for the whole afternoon/evening (until the sun went down). The Liar's Dice table was the hit of the kids' games! We taped a Pirate flag banner around the edge of a folding table (tip o' the hat to Bilgemunkey for that grand decorating idea), and had a 6' tall inflatable palm tree tied to one side of the table for effect. A crowd of kids gathered around the table to pit their chances against me (dressed in my pirate hat, shirt & coat -- in 95 degree weather!), and winners were allowed a dip into a treasure chest filled with candy. We had four folding chairs, allowing four players at a time. One round was played for a single winner (no dice sacrificed for multiple rounds -- it would have taken far too long), and I finally had to give up my chair to allow a non-stop free-for-all of kids playing against kids. Again -- a great success. And, no -- I didn't take any pictures, but the local paper did. I'll see if it appears in print.

'Twas only a flesh wound, and he was faking it the whole time...

Tim McGraw

Ahhh... Here was the quote I was looking for. Yes -- having returned to the Renaissance Faire after a ten-year hiatus, and attending a couple of pirate events, I must agree: "under-breast" bodices are not for everyone. Enhance 'em, shape 'em, mold 'em, or even cover 'em up to make me wonder ... but don't lift them completely out and point them at me like a couple of angry weasels. "Spoobs"? Scary. Having said that, I have a whole new collection of beads, and I have repaired my computer screen.... ladies?

Been having troubles noticing eyes first at the Bodice-rich Renaissance Faire and Pirate events. Although, sometimes, I am staring in horror. Not all ladies should be wearing bodices, I am ashamed to say.

Capt Eisley knows how to make a kiss linger... I have my own method. Just finished two bowls of Lucky Charms and a cup o' coffee.

The last 5 minutes of "Hook" is playing on cable. Wish I had known it earlier, I might have actually watched some of it.

I am partial to how she looks out of those fine clothes! (Oh, I am going to pay dearly for having put that on the internet...)

I see that Bounding Main will be there. I wish I had better information on what to expect. I cannot imagine it will equal Port Washington, but here's hoping... There remains a strong probability that I will be there the weekend of September 16... we shall see.

I only read the first three posts in this thread, and then decided to jump in with my own response to the original topic question... Having not read the entire thread, please excuse me if I ignore or reiterate things previously stated. Disappointed? No, not really. The movie was overly long, but I feel I got my money's worth. MORE than my money's worth, and that does NOT leave me with a feeling of "disappointment." The most important factor was that I was thoroughly entertained for the 4 or 5 hours I was in the theater (how the hell long was it?). I did not see PotCII opening night -- I waited several days and then saw it with two of my kids (and at a matinee show, saving a few bucks, with almost no one else in the theater -- this is how I prefer to see movies). Thus I had heard most of the critical reviews before seeing the film, and I felt it lived up to a level above the criticism. The costuming was beyond fantastic (ten minutes into the movie, I already felt that it was money well spent), the sets and special effects were excellent (Davy Jones was mesmerizing), the action was fast-paced and invigorating.... What else was there? Oh, the storyline. I really have no complaints. Like "Empire Strikes Back" and "Back to the Future 2", this is a transition movie from #1 to #3. I hear some of you (and others) implying the movie sucked along the lines of "Back to the Future 2". I, however, found the movie as enjoyable and watchable as "Empire Strikes Back." And as time has passed, "Empire" turned out to be the most watchable of the original trilogy (don't argue with me on this -- you will not win the argument). Having said this, I have cautioned people who have yet to see the movie (as the local resident pirate, everyone seems to want my input) to expect a transistion movie only preparing them for the third in the series, but which is still full of action and fun. And Action and Fun are what the movie is full of. Again: I really have no complaints. My opinion will be tempered next year by how Dinsney plans to tie up all the loose plotlines... If they drop the ball, then this movie will prove to have been a waste of time. If, however, they effectively use this springboard to make a remarkable two-part (#2+3) saga along the lines of... er... "Kill Bill 1+2" (the only example that comes to mind), then this might prove to be a far better (half-)film than I have already given it credit for. Possibly the best thing about this movie is that there is a sudden outpouring of pirate stuff into the mainstream pop culture. The second movie has only fed into the pirate interest remaining from the first one, and fanned the flames of Pirate Passion. Books, obscure movie titles, toys... and I cannot wait for this year's Halloween. Anyway, that is my two doubloons worth. It is apparent that some -- or many -- of you disagree. And I am sorry you were expecting more, only to have been disappointed... perhaps another movie (other than PotCIII) will be made in the near future that will dwarf Disney's work. Here's hoping...

What type of crack was the artist smoking when they created this graph? Typically, one would plot temperature (X) vs. year (Y), to show a decline in the number of pirates (the data you wanted to illustrate). The way this graph was designed, it clearly indicates that Global temperature, plotted against the inverse number of pirates, actually displays an increase in the passage of time!

...So help me God.

Anonymous

Francois, My wife is quite supportive of my reenacting bug, as long as she does not have to join in. Which is ironic, considering how great she looks in a costume... And I offer the following as evidence:

Actually, this was a hold-over from my (financially) cutting corners in creating my Civil War kit. I made a completely authentic haversack out of canvas according to U.S. military plans... but had to "tar" it. I had discovered some time earlier that black polymer fabric paint (available in most craft and fabric stores) when rubbed into the fabric, made it look as if it had been tarred, and was then waterproof. After using that haversack for about twelve years, the "tar" had really started to wear off. Just last winter, I took a new bottle of fabric paint, re-applied it, and the decade-old haversack now looks as good as new. Ever since I saw Bilgemunkey's tarred hat (last year) I had been wanting to try the paint on a felt hat blank... again, I am quite happy with the result.

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince

He could only take half of the movie at one sitting... but after finishing it, my son also admitted that The Sea Hawk absolutely rocked. He actually sat forward (= stopped slouching!) in his seat during the (many!) sword-fighting scenes. (I turned my son onto Errol Flynn sword-fighting scenes! Chalk off another from my "Great Father Things To Do" list.) Of course, the scenes where Flynn (Sorry: Geoffrey Thorpe) is fighting off three or four Spaniards at a time... great stuff. I myself forgot how great a film this is! * * * * * * * * * On a virtually unrelated side note... I picked up yesterday a Pirate Movie DVD at Walgreens! For One Dollar! It has two films: Long John Silver's Return to Treasure Island (I now own THREE copies of this on DVD), and Pirates of the Black Hawk (1958). However, I must tell you that this second movie is actually Il pirata dello sparviero nero, is virtually unwatchable (despite starring Brigitte Bardot's sister Mijanou Bardot), and was hardly worth the dollar. Snooze fest.

We don't need no stinking batges... More merit badges: -- Truncated riddle and limerick solving -- Atomic batteries for power -- Turbines for speed -- Batarang whittling -- Cape repair -- Choosing a sidekick -- Spelunking -- Chiroptera identification -- Trophy Collection: From Robot Dinosaurs to Giant Pennies

... World of Disney

I cheated, but it worked out great. I rubbed fabric paint into my felt hat. It's a polymer, and imbues a complete waterproof finish. The only clean-up was getting the stuff off my fingers. It looks great (and, yes, it dried virtually rock-hard, but that helps hold its shape)

Here is my son again in the same coat, but with the added waistcoat (I added functional pockets to his waistcoat): Another shot... And one more... Those pants are NOT from the Simplicity pattern. I ran out of steam, especially as I had two more outfits (my wife's and my daughter's) to make for the Bristol Ren Faire. I went to the local Goodwill, found pairs of light trousers (@ $1.99), cut them below the knee, hemmed them, and added a button on each side. This worked for my son and for my daughter (hers can be seen below):