The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Super-Quick Edition

We almost wrote to say there would be no quiz today, given that we spent all of last night getting a mammoth email together explaining how a whole wedge of Brooklyn are going to get their organic chard fix this year.

But our dedication to you and your quiz-hungry mind trumps all. Hastily, then:

By 1861, a Maine native who had become the first printerto set up a color-lithography business in Massachusetts, was losing sales on his previous big-seller -- a portrait of Lincoln -- because the great man had grown his beard since the portrait was created. But with a moralistic adaptation of a popular pastime, he sold 45,000 copies in the first year alone. A special feature was the use of a device meant to ensure that similarities to gambling implements didn't endanger sales. Further changed, his invention went on to become popular well into the 20th century.

What was the product, and who is the man?

First correct answer posted to comments gets something I don't have time to think of. Don't Google. Put your answer in the comments. Gotta go!

Comments

hmmmm...snakes and ladders (chutes and ladders?) with a spinner instead of dice?

Posted by: art | April 27, 2007 07:38 AM

Mad Libs of the Bible BINGO

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 08:38 AM

The Martyrology Trading Card Set.

Posted by: Scraps | April 27, 2007 09:41 AM

I was thinking trading cards too--maybe trading cards of the presidents of the USA?

Posted by: gavinedwards | April 27, 2007 11:13 AM

Nope. Cards are not a feature. It's worth adding, I suppose, that visually this game has changed tremendously from the 19th to the 20th century.

Posted by: BT | April 27, 2007 11:43 AM

Horseshoes? Still popular in Kennebunkport among the shrubs.

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 11:52 AM

The Game of Life?

Posted by: gavinedwards | April 27, 2007 12:07 PM

Dominos of the Saints

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 12:12 PM

Rubik's Crucifix

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 12:42 PM

Could this be the pinball machine? Could the man be Bally?

Posted by: gavinedwards | April 27, 2007 12:43 PM

Gavin has one part of the question right -- it was originally the "Checkered Game of Life" -- and used a modified checkerboard as the basic playing surface.

And the inventor is, of course...

Posted by: BT | April 27, 2007 12:54 PM

Parker?

Posted by: boxjam | April 27, 2007 02:00 PM

Hasbro?

If the original used a modified chekerboard, does that mean it was *not* checkers?
Jacob's Ladder?

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 02:34 PM

Mr. Milton Bradley?

Posted by: gavinedwards | April 27, 2007 02:46 PM

I take it this is not the Life game where you choose a car color and drive to Millionaire Estates? Not much moralizing there.

Posted by: shananan | April 27, 2007 02:54 PM

It's the same game, Shananan. Or, rather, the later version of the same game, invented by Mr. Milton Bradley his own self.

Gavin sweeps both parts. No trip to the "Poor Farm" for him.

Posted by: BT | April 27, 2007 11:14 PM

In a previous life, people used to come by my office and engage in the following exchange:
Them: "Is there a problem with the network today?"
Me: "Not that I know of; what are you experiencing?"
Them: "I haven't gotten any email."
The content of this dialogue should be enough to carbon-date the conversation. With no particular signs of life here, I'm tempted to write a short story, working title: The Day the Wombat Stood Still. Maybe it's not enough for a short story, but more of a blog post, or an SMS message. Or maybe I'll just forget about it.

Posted by: Jonathan | May 4, 2007 06:26 PM

'K I got a question.

There's a (defunct) unit of currency that used to be of varying worth, usually a little over a (British) pound that eventually came to be charmingly, predictably Britishly, understood as worth one pound, one shilling, or 21 shillings.

This was obviously before the Philistinean decimalization of the pound.

What's the unit of currency?

Posted by: boxjam | May 4, 2007 08:53 PM

the wombat is in MO, I'm told

could this be a guinea? sherlock holmes is always tossing them around

Posted by: art | May 4, 2007 09:10 PM

17 minutes from Q to A.
You see, boxjam, the wombat team moves quickly because, by virtue of its global distribution, it never sleeps.

Posted by: Jonathan | May 5, 2007 01:44 PM

hold on...so I was right? Go figure.

Posted by: art | May 6, 2007 06:57 PM

The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

The Wombat File is a Delaying Tactic that May Save Your Life

The Friday Quiz: Super-Quick Edition

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