Discussion: PARTY & street scramble FRIDAY 22 JUNE

OK, we're going to put on a sudden street scramble and bbq party TOMORROW in Nahant MA to welcome Cristina back from furren parts. Please come. RSVP to me barb.bryant at gmail.com for more info.

Something like:
arrive anytime; afternoon is good.
Grill available; bring something (anything) to share for dinner.
2? hour street scramble on USGS map + aerial photo. Rocky ocean promintories, historic New England buildings...
Plenty of room for people to stay overnight.

wow-- that looks beautiful

Look, no one ever comes to my parties, but would it help to know we'll have DDR?

DDR? I'm in. Or did I have a choice in the matter?

Scramble course is about 10k.

Hey, I saw the subject line and thought someone had planned a party for after OUR Friday night Street Scramble in Seattle! How'd it go?

BTW, re: the name Street Scramble --
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=m...

:-)

Hi, Terry!

Well, the link isn't really working, but I suppose it says you've trademarked the name Street Scramble. Good name. You'll have to come and confiscate all the proceeds.

It was fun. Maybe a dozen people did it. Dave & John picked some of the controls, and they were in some sort of mode of hilarity when they did it, and picked nearly overlapping sites and the clues were a bit tricky, especially since I hadn't visited the controls before making the map and the clues/questions. But it was neat to spend just 45 minutes the evening before picking control locations (me in the car, them on foot), and then make the map on the day of. Relatively painless. John said that the map looked just like one of your Street Scramble maps.

It was a lot of fun, thanks!

Wow, that's gorgeous. I love New England.

Really is a beautiful spot, but I guess in 1850 they had the chance to pick the best locations. After dark, on the porch it was so quiet, hard to belive you were only 15? miles from downtown....

Save me a map. What did you use as a base map? We use USGS topo. You are so good at putting stuff together fast. Wish I could have been there. My friends the Norheims are going to Boston/environs tomorrow for 2.5 weeks. If they had been a week earlier I would have sent them to your party and they would have loved it.

You really do have a special place there.

Re: the name Street Scramble. It's my understanding that if people start using it to mean street-O then it becomes genericized and is no longer a trademark.

I used USGS topo. I also used an aerial photo. (Both were provided, back-to-back.) I bought both of them from topozone, I think. I'm going to try and post the maps on my log at some point soon...

In hindsight, this was one of the early consciousness-raising PR moves leading up to the real Merge-O/NEOC Cambridge Street Scramble in November, so I think the use of the term stays within the family for now. :-)

It would have been fun to see you or your friends in Nahant!

regarding trademarks, I think you can only lose it if the trademark holder themselves use it to mean something generic, or it can be shown that it was used commonly to mean something generic before the trademark was applied for. I'm no expert though.

> this was one of the early consciousness-raising
> PR moves leading up to the real MerGeo/NEOC
> Cambridge Street Scramble in November

Oh, right!

Regarding trademarks, my Nolo Press "Trademarks" book says that you can lose your trademark just from others using it in a generic way. Kleenex, Coke, and Xerox all faced this danger and all took steps to discourage the public from using their marks generically. Notice that in the 80's we used to "xerox" something but now we "make a copy". Don't know what Xerox did to change our speaking habits but apparently it worked!

Google is facing the same problem with the new verb "to google". Seems like a real threat, in that case. Also, I think Apple is worried about iPod becoming a generic term, but that seems less likely. Guess I could google it to find out. ;-)

Now, tell us about the MerGeo/NEOC Cambridge Street Scramble!

Um, we haven't finalized a date yet, which is my fault. But we're hoping to put one on this fall! It will be a full-blown Merge-O scramble, as they've done in SF and Seattle. We'll have to get Concord Academy to come.

Sara (Cristina's mom) & Judy Karpinski shredding at DDR:

Now I know where I get my DDR skills from!

Thank goodness there was no video from my one attempt!

You mean your *first* attempt, since there will surely be many more at meets to come.

hello? is anybody there? well, it said 'add to discussion' so I'm adding. Barb, I would love to bring CA students to the Merge O Scramble, whatever that is. Thanks so much for the party, it was a lot of fun. I would like to get one of those pads for home.
Well, got to go fold the laundry, iron my pillowcases, and spray the sheets with lavender water.

Ummm, am I guessing correctly that Cristina left herself logged on at her mom's in MA?

Well, obviously it wasn't me. I would never iron my pillowcases.

Or, you have dissociative identity disorder.