While he advises that it be used as a dramatic gesture of victory, we believe it can be used effec- tively in just about any situation: to denote frustration or anger, at shopping mall openings, waiting for a bus, getting on or off a bus, asking when the bus is going to show up? Magical.
BAD PASSWORDS The Big Book of Spy Stuff
You know what’s not magi-
cal? Getting ripped off. And, increasingly, the place where more bad things can happen is right there in front of your computer. Ironically, the ma- chine that brings so much convenience into our lives also leaves us horribly vulnerable. And of course, this is all the more maddening because the computer doesn’t do this to us, WE DO! The first-line of online defense online are the passwords we choose for our various computing activities. Problem is, most people put about as much thought into these passwords as what they’re going to have for lunch. An even bigger problem is that a lot of people
use the very same password, a fact crooks are well aware of. For instance, King points out that one of the most popular passwords is DROWSSAP “Do you see that? It’s the word PASSWORD
spelled backwards,” he writes. “Wow! This is even cleverer than just using the word ‘password’ for a password. And guess what? Whether spelled back- ward or forward, ‘password’ is one of the most popular passwords around!” Researchers study the passwords people use. Here is a list of the some of the most common ones:
123456—One percent of all computer users use this or another series of numbers for their password.
654321—Backwards thinking. iloveyou—Sweet but should read “ilovegettinghacked.”
abcdef—Or any similar letter sequence. abc123—Ooh! Getting tricky! [person’s first name]—Because it’s so simple, no one will figure it out! (Unless they try.)
qwerty—Look where these keys are on the keyboard.
11111—I just threw my head back and laughed. 0—Yes, the whole password is the number 0. (That’s really sad.)
tigger—Don’t look at me, I’m just reporting this stuff!
ARM WRESTLING The Big Book of Boy Stuff
Perhaps there is nothing more prized by
boys—and men for that matter—than strength. While their older counterparts tend to measure things like that with stock portfolios, boys are left to test each other with feats of direct combat,
4 | kidsguide fall/winter 11/12
none more basic than arm wrestling. You know arm wrestling. Two
people sit or stand across from each other, a flat surface be-
tween them. They place elbows on the surface, clasp hands and
then see who can pull the other’s hand down. Simple, straightfor- ward, with the worst that can pos- sibly happen to you is your pride gets hurt and your palms get a little sweaty. But here’s the thing about
winning at this most basic test of strength: it has very little to do
with strength. As King points out, arm wrestling has much more to do with tech- nique, leverage and a key twist, literally, right at the be- ginning. He explains below. Read, learn and dominate (girls, too)!
• “If you are standing or kneeling, remember: Have the foot (or knee) that is on the same side as the arm you are wrestling with more forward than the other. If there is a table leg, try to get this foot up against it on the inside.”
• “Try to keep your upper arm as close to your body as you can. On [the count] of ‘three,’ twist your opponent’s hand around so that the back of his hand faces you and then pull! He is now out of position.”
• “After you get your twist, keep your hand, wrist, arm, and body moving together. Many people make the mistake of using their arms to arm wrestle. Your arm and body working together are much more powerful than just your arm. Keep your fist inside. Even if you start to lose, keep your arm against your body. In other words, lean back with it. The moment you let your arm fight by itself, you’ll lose.”
OH, GROSS!
The Big Book of Gross Stuff Match the gross-sounding food with its definition (answers below.)
1. Bladderwrack 2. Skum saus 3. Wheat germ 4. Bloater 5. Scrunchion 6. Wiener Krapfen 7. Toad-in-the-hole 8. Bratklops 9. Chlodnik
a. Pork cut into cubes and fried b. Germs are good for you! c. A scummy sauce from Norway d. Dried fish e. An Austrian doughnut f. A fried egg in a piece of toast g. Edible seaweed h. A cold Polish soup i. German fried meatballs
MICKEY MOUSE
Cute! A Guide to All Things Adorable King takes much space in this spiffy little tome to
point out how cute animals are to humans, whether they are baby seals, puppies or, in his opinion, a sala- mander called the Mexican axolotl. He points out that many times what we find adorable in animals is that they have similar features to humans. It’s for this reason, experts tell us, that we think of potential dangerous animals as bears and lions—animals with very human-like noses and eyes—are seen as cute/beautiful and noble while other animals that have very little in common with our face, such as sharks and snakes, are seen as insidious and evil. The point is, when it comes to cute, we’re pretty much stuck on ourselves. There may be no better example of this than old Mickey Mouse himself, the Cuteness King for nearly a century. But, as King points out, Mickey
wasn’t born cute, he was incremen- tally drawn to it. “You see, when Mickey Mouse
started out in show business in the 1930s, he had a long, narrow snout, a small head, and small eyes. Just like a REAL mouse!” Not surprisingly, he acted like one
too. Early Mickey cartoons do not fea- ture the cute, cuddly icon we know today. To be quite honest, Mickey was kind of a pest. Ever seen the land- mark cartoon “Steamboat Willie?”
Mickey is a pretty big jerk, and possibly psychotic. But with each successive cartoon, Mickey
changed. “His head got bigger and rounder. His eyes got
bigger. And his snout got shorter. In short, Mickey got cuter.” And he became cuter as he became more human-
like, and as that happened, his popularity soared. Which, frankly, we find confusing since we find the early, psychotic Mickey much more entertaining. He just seems a lot more fun. You know, the kind of guy who would rip his own underwear out of his pants.
(Answers: 1. g 2. c 3. b 4. d 5. a 6. e 7. f 8. i 9. h )
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