A friend of mine recently told me of a promotion that a local casino was having wherein you could wait in a very long line for the opportunity and the exquisite pleasure of playing tic-tac-toe with a live chicken. If you were to best the chicken you would win some nominal or mostly worthless prize, but I suppose that your self esteem also would soar from the joy of being victorious over such an obviously intelligent animal.
Thinking that this person might have been having one over on me, I went to investigate this phenomenon recently and discovered to my mixed horror and bemusement that in fact this was ongoing. Many determined people waited for hours to fulfill their mighty vision quest. Not being willing to wait on line to have such an experience of my own (and also acknowledging that the chicken is no doubt much more intelligent than I am), I did stop to watch some of the other patrons play tic-tac-toe with the chickens in a strange device designed for such a purpose. Amazingly many of them were in fact not winning. During the short period of time that I watched the chicken seemed to be winning at a 5 to 1 ratio. Sadly the casino security would not allow me to photograph this amazing event so you will have to go on your own to see it in all its majesty.
I am not sure what this says about us as a species but I have decided not to think about it too deeply as the conclusions I would draw no doubt would frighten me. Instead it is time for me to go now and head to the library to find some books on game theoric tic-tac-toe strategy.
14 comments:
I always start in the corner.
kl, http://ostermiller.org/tictactoeexpert.html
That's funny. I am not secure enough to lose to a chicken at tic-tac-toe so I will pass on this game, but seriously why? Why would anyone ever think this would be a good game and actually use it as a draw?
carole, I think it is a reasonable game to teach to children to get them thinking about strategic things. As to the casino's reasoning all I can say is I am told the line to play is hours long every day.
oh good! Everyone gets their magical 15 minutes--even the chicken!
Why does this sound so sadly familiar?
karen, I fell the chickens should get some time off.
rj, what do you mean?
What? I've won at tic-tac-toe since I was 5 years old. This is hilarious. People who lose to a chicken...no. Tell me it ain't so.
A border collie, on the other hand.
kerry, it is so. I agree that tic-tac-toe seems relatively straightforward so the results I observed were surprising but perhaps more reflective of the people involved that the chickens.
Maybe if they were Muppet Chickens.
Having grown up in central IL farmland, I have played Tic-Tac-Toe with a chicken. It was an attraction at Rockome Gardens, a place I don't even really know how to describe to anyone not from central IL. I think those chickens cheat.
How is your brother?
dbs, what are muppets?
meg, it was a bizarre attraction. I am not sure about the efficacy of chickens or cheating systems in this context. I know by watching that people feel amazingly proud of themselves when they best the chicken.
nsss, somewhat better, waiting for various infections to clear up so that he can have his surgery.
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