Title: Turnabout is Fair Play

Author: Martin Moene

Date: 07 January 2017 21:10:04 +00:00 or Sat, 07 January 2017 21:10:04 +00:00

Summary: Baron M is still game for a wager.

Body: 

Why, you look chilled to the bone Sir R-----! Come, sit by the hearth and warm yourself whilst I fetch you a medicinal glass of brandy.

To your very good health sir! Will you join me in a wager whilst you recover?

Good show!

I propose a game that I learned upon the banks of the river Styx whilst my fellow travellers and I were waiting for the ferry. This being the third time that I had died, I was quite accustomed to the appalling service quality of the Hadean public transport system and so was most appreciative of a little sport to pass the time.

When the ferry eventually arrived, the ferryman, a cantankerous old curmudgeon I must say, set to beating me upon my back with one of his oars for making him wait whilst I finished a game. Needless to say, I should not tolerate such treatment at the hands of a common matelot and so I snatched his other oar and engaged him in a duel!

He was remarkably spry given his advanced years and put up quite the fight, I can tell you! Nevertheless, he was ultimately no match for my skill at arms and I bested him with a particularly well placed blow to his head. Realising that I was now faced with yet another interminable wait for the next ferry, I decided to take the long trek back to the land of the living instead.

But I digress! I must tell you the rules of that game!

Here, I have laid out twenty five coins face up in five rows of five coins apiece and have turned one of them face down. For a price of one coin if, by turning pairs of horizontally or vertically neighbouring heads over to tails, you can turn every coin to tails then you shall have two coins as your prize! What say you sir?

When I told that loathsome student, who it appears that despite my very best efforts I am quite incapable of eluding, about this game he paid it no heed whatsoever but instead commenced to harping on about his and his fellows’ mutual hatred of board games. I suppose that one shouldn’t be altogether surprised to find that those whose wits would be sorely tested by snakes and ladders eschew such sport entirely, but let us not concern ourselves with the likes of them! Come, take another glass and weigh up your chances!

Courtesy of www.thusspakeak.com

Notes: 

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