*jews or other religions cool too!

I won these key fobs and promo plastics at a tournament at Pizza Depot back in May.  The awesome, immortal Rick Stetta donated them as prizes for the tournament.

For those who don’t know, these little trinkets often came with new games so you could put the game’s key on a key chain with the fob and know which key went to what.

Problem is, I don’t even own a pinball game!  What to do?

Well, this blog just hit 25,000 unique hits, and I’m super happy about that.  So I’m giving them away.

Email me with your choice at jonnynacho@gmail.com.  Be specific.  Especially with the Doctor Who fobs.  Include your mailing address.

EDIT: What’s x’d off is gone.  Only DW’s left.  Updated 12/16 at 1:30 PM PST.  Happy holidays. :-)

Tried out a new format last night: Zombies!  Everyone starts as a human, and we set up 4-player games.  If you came in 3rd and 4th, you were now infected –  a zombie!  Your only goal in life from then on was to consume humans.  And if you did, you won a prize or cash.  If you didn’t, you went back into the hoard of unending zombies which typically characterize these types of end-of-world scenarios.  However, if you managed to be the last human standing, you would win half the prize pot.

Nina G, Zoe V, random Asian guy and Jim V

Powered by Cheetos and Homeroom Mac and Cheese, TJ is the last human survivor and took about $40 in cash.

"Wear some golf shoes, otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive. Impossible to walk in this muck. No footing at all." Running tournaments always presents unique challenges.

Includes cameos from Franck Bona (winner of the European Pinball Championship), Jersey Jack and Martin Ayub (editor of Pinballnews.com)

Cassel, of Alameda, was delighted when told his paintings looked 20 feet high. In fact, they are about half that size, but “that’s what they’re striving to look like,” he said. He exhibits two acrylics that stretch from floor to ceiling, reinterpretations of art from pinball machines originally painted in 1955 and 1970. Cassel is sponsored by Alameda’s Pacific Pinball Museum, home of Lucky Juju Pinball, and jokes that they help “keep the ball rolling.”

Article here: http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_19498742

French Cartoon

Oops – according to a comment this in Portuguese!  Mon Dieu!

Marcus, Jesse and me on Sunday at Country Club Bowl. Jesse made it to the semi-finals of the recent Import Danish Pinball tournament.

Nicole has started a bi-weekly pinball meet-up in Marin.  The next two dates are this Wednesday, Dec. 7 and then again on Wed December 21st.  7 – 10pm.  All skill levels and ages are welcome.

Currently the meet-up is being held at Country Club Bowl, which is basically a giant tribute to The Big Lebowski.  The $3 socks in the vending machines are a nice touch but the real star is The Candlestick Room (the bar), with decor that apparently stopped evolving some time in the mid-1970s.  You could probably order a Rusty Nail or a Rob Roy and they wouldn’t bat an eye.  I thought I was in The French Connection Part 3.  It was awesome.

Come out and play some pinball and meet fellow enthusiasts.  If you have questions, contact Nicole at marinpins@gmail.com

“The Women in his Life” (1933).  It is the oldest film I’ve heard of which has a pinball in it.

In the opening scene of the film, the character played by Otto Kruger makes a bet with the woman that if he beats her score, well, basically, that she’ll shack up with him!  It appears that Kruger’s character, a hotshot lawyer with questionable morals, is using some sort of cheating device on the plunger.

So now the question is, what game is it?  It looks vaguely like Contact, but clearly it isn’t.  If you know, please reply in the Comments section.