October '19

The rules are simple. One player represents the lead feathered friend, whose hat went missing. Informing his competitors of this unfortunate loss, the stork then specifies what color the headgear was. At that point, the game commences and the displeased waterbird attempts to peck, or at least touch, any of his fleeing opponents, who may either keep running away or procure immunity by touching an object, the color of which matches the stork’s missing apparel.

Escaping a livid stork may take place on several levels of difficulty. For example, in our Council’s first match, the color of the stork’s lost hat was petrol blue. At first, our dear Sock Secretary Hubert Ponožka thought this was child’s play, since petrol is a clear liquid. He stoically dipped two fingers into a glass of water. The stork, in cahoots with the other non-pecked Councilors (i.e. his competitors), maintained that the color petrol blue was bluish green, as it is derived from the color refracted at times by crude oil.

He made another attempt by saying that that “petrol” could potentially also be a flaming yellow, since its combustion is perhaps the most defining chemical reaction of the past 100 years.

Unfortunately, that strategy also failed and he thus became the new stork. Not for long, though. He drew a purple ace from his sleeve and had one fool mistake spectral violet with the red-blue mixture that is purple. As you can see, playing with colors can be more difficult than one might expect.