Mystery Cam: Pitch 'Til U Win

I'm either going to have to shrink, master Vulcan mind control techniques or quit going to carnivals.

This past weekend, my lovely wife and I visited the carnival and exhibits and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. For more on the "fair food" portion of our voyage, see "Short Orders," coming tomorrow to the Food section of this fine site. As such jaunts always seem to be, the trip was expensive beyond what it probably should have been.

A large part of the expenditure was on carnival games, which I am just about completely unable to resist. Whether it's a pool game, watergun race, balloon pop, basketball toss or any of the other myriad "games of skill," I'm P.T. Barnum's word made flesh, and every barker on the midway's got my picture stapled up in his stall.

Part of the problem is my size. At 6 feet, 5 inches I stand out a bit in a crowd. The barkers shout their "Hey, man!" and "Excuse me, lady!" and the masses can ignore them, but when I hear "Hey, big guy!" there's only one person they can be talking to. I make eye contact, and all is lost. My wallet levitates into my hand, and $10 later I may or may not have the stuffed trinket that I set out to get.

Now, I AM fairly good at most of the games, if I do say so myself, and we rarely leave the midway without my wife being all but buried under an armload of stuffed flowers, dogs, kittens and various leering cartoon characters. I avoided the latter this year, since Spongebob Squarepants appears to be the "hot" carnival goodie and animated cleaning items give me the willies.

I came across a game this time the likes of which I hadn't seen in years: an old-fashioned dime toss. For the unitiated, the dime toss consists of a table laden with various glass items such as ashtrays, glasses, mugs, plates and the like. The object is to toss your dime with the proper loft and spin to cause it settle directly in one of the items. You win whatever glass treasure your dime stops in. It's a LOT harder than it sounds, what with dimes being hard and bouncy. I went away emptyhanded, having tossed $3 worth of shiny coins.

My favorite game, not necessarily the one I'm best at, is the simple pool game. A rack of three or four balls is set up on a pool table, and the object is to sink them without missing a shot. I'm normally a better-than-average pool shot, but there's something -- maybe the outdoor environment, the slightly bent sticks, or a latent tendency to choke -- that frustrates the dickens out of me. To date, I've won exactly twice in over a decade of trying.

Speaking of winners, the folks in this week's Myster Cam city have given rise to a number of them. Any guesses yet?

Last Week

In last week's column, the ever-organized Ms. Bobendrier, who'd like everyone to know that she HAS purchased a new gas cap, whisked our winter-weary bones off to Papeete, Tahiti. Ain't she great? The sun-drenched winners were Michael Hay, Dru Zimmerman and Manley Brudvig.

This Week's Clues

Wow, what a bunch of clues I could give you for this week's Mystery Cam city. I could talk about an author who inspired a polyester-clad dance machine. I could talk about a "Star Trek" heartthrob who was born here. But I won't.

Instead, and predictably, I'm going to talk about food. Residents in the same state as our city have a contest each year that involves transporting a quickbread from one place to another faster than some folks who speak with a bit of an accent. The city itself is home to one of the most aptly named food chains in history, a business that I used to call home for eight or nine hours a day.

That should be plenty to get you started. If you're still stumped, use the Netcam links at left to narrow down your choices. You might also ask your aunt for help.

Go ahead and send in your guess! The first three folks in with the correct answer will be immortalized in next week's column. Good luck!