Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Conversation Bites Party Tricks of the Trade
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 6:04 AM
A young friend who spent the summer in Taiwan recently taught me a cool new origami maneuver in which the paper sheath that contains a pair chopsticks is transformed into a little boat that doubles as a chopstick rest.
Under almost no circumstance would I be able to recreate the intricate little mouse hat in the photo above. My repertoire of tricks for amusing children in restaurants is limited to tying a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue and making a worm out of the straw wrapper--a low-tech enterprise I've got down to a science by now.
What other nifty things can you do?
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The balancing spoon and singing crystal wine glass were always my standbys too, Zorro. We always brought cards for a game of slap jack if the services was slooooow.
Okay, and I'm dying to learn how to rubber band chopsticks together for kids. Anyone know how to do that?
Two quick shakes of salt on your drink napkin before you set your ice-filled glass down will prevent it from coming back up attached, toilet-paper-on-shoe style.
Nicks, it's quite e-z:
roll the chopsticks wrapper into a tight cylinder
Place it about 1" from the thick end o' the sticks.
Place the rubber band on one end of the paper cylynder and twist it into a loop, then go over the top of one chopstick. Twist it again, then go over the other end of the paper, twist again, then over the other chopstick, twist... you get the idea. Repeat until you run out of rubber band.
Ta-daa!
PS: I can also turn a champagne cork cage into an ice-cream parlor chair
Most of mine are origami related. If there is any scrap paper around, I will usually fold a crane while I'm waiting.
I also have business cards handy and, if children are present, I will fold some jumping frogs. Otherwise I sometimes fold a 4 card octahemioctahedra or similar.
I usually have other paper and will sometimes fold cubes, turtles, roses, etc. On occasion I will also fold dollar bills to leave as part of the tip, but they are usually a pain to deal with because they are often not very crisp.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malachus/collections/72157603064023836/
If you just want to learn one thing, memorize the jumping frog.
