facebookInstagramIn the neighbourhood of Queens stands a peculiar street sign...  amongst the many rows of brick apartment buildings. It reads 35 T1H4 A1V4E1N1U1E1 and reminds the many passersby that Alfred Mosher Butts once lived here in this very neighbourhood....

facebookInstagramThe year 2021 has officially arrived... Even though this new year has the potential to be a lot more positive than 2020, Manitobans still find themselves in the midst of a province-wide lockdown. Getting together with family and friends from outside...

facebookInstagramRoughly 25 years ago, I visited my family in Germany for Christmas...Some of my friends there arranged a board game evening, which is something we usually did when I would visit my hometown. I remember that evening well. Partly because it was really...

facebookInstagramNew year’s is just around the corner... On December 31st we will likely be pouring a glass of champagne, or some other beverage of choice, to cheers the arrival of 2021 with the people close to us. There are a few theories that attempt to explain our...

facebookInstagramThis is a time of anxieties... A year that was primarily consumed by the outbreak of COVID-19 and its impact on our everyday lives has taken a toll on the mental health of a growing number of people around the globe and here at home. Worries about our...

facebookInstagramThroughout the second half of the 20th Century, most popular board games around were of American origin... Growing up as a kid in Germany, I spent most of my spare time playing games like Monopoly, Risk or Sorry! with my friends. To this day, the...

facebookInstagramHalloween is just around the corner... The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder and the leaves are slowly falling off the trees. It is the time to celebrate the season of ghouls, ghosts and monsters. For many of us Halloween might...

facebookInstagramTheme is an important part of most board gaming experiences... It allows us to escape our everyday life perspective and to momentarily slip into the role of someone else. Be it a railroad developer in ‘Ticket to Ride,’ a settler in ‘Catan’ or a...

facebookInstagramCard Games are extremely popular...They have been around for a long time and all of us have likely experienced them in one form or another, be it through Poker, Uno or Rummy. Traditional card games have one important aspect in common: They use a fixed...

facebookInstagramIt is finally happening... After a particular long spring and summer break this year, kids are going back to school this coming week. For many parents this might come as a welcome re-introduction of school, homework and bedtime routines. For the kids...

facebookInstagramIn 1997 CBC Radio’s ‘As It Happens’ aired an episode...that featured an interview with Peter Negroni, who was the school superintendent in Springfield, Mass. at the time. Negroni was petitioning to ban any school spelling bees and to replace them with...

facebookInstagramMost of us have given up on the idea of travelling or vacationing anywhere outside our province this summer. ..  As a result, camping trips or cabin rentals have gone up in popularity. Plenty of Manitobans are discovering or re-discovering the beauty...

facebookInstagramWhat would happen if I became someone completely different...  and were to experience things in a world that is purely imagined? For decades a game called Dungeons and Dragons has attempted to provide that experience to generations of players from...

facebookInstagramLast month I built a play structure at our cabin... Similar to the ones you often see in people’s back yards, featuring a large tower with a platform that can be climbed in various ways. As far as materials were concerned the whole thing came as a...

facebookInstagramIn the mid 1950’s American toymaker and game designer Edwin S. Lowe was approached by an anonymous couple form Canada... They designed a game that they called ‘Yacht’ simply because they enjoyed playing it on their yacht with friends (don’t we all?)....