Umbrella Tetris

This is my new favorite game, and I call it Umbrella Tetris.

Here is how you play.

First you come to New York City on a rainy day, and you bring your umbrella - this is crucial. Then in the middle of a downpour, you choose a destination several blocks away, preferably with lots of construction and scaffolding between you and your destination. THEN, you open your umbrella and walk down the sidewalk, bringing you into a stunning collision of crowds carrying umbrellas that are bigger than they are and cannot inhabit the same space. This is where the game gets interesting, as you try to lift, duck, sway, lean and dodge all of the oncoming umbrellas, without decapitating the person walking beside you. As I said, in construction zones, with lots of scaffolding, this game becomes much more interesting as the side walk narrows and we introduce into the equation various and sundry steel poles and construction apparatuses.

I call it Umbrella Tetris, and I'm telling you, it's all the rage.

Now, and very brief explanation of how it got it's name... Quite simply it reminded me of a viral video on YouTube that my siblings introduced to me of a Japanese Game Show that they call HUMAN TETRIS. In this game, a contestant in a silver body suit stands in front of a pool of water. Ahead of him is a runway with a curtain at the end, as that curtain is yanked back suddenly a wall begins moving swiftly towards the player, except that there is one human shaped hole in this wall that he must fit himself into, lest he be pushed into the pool of water.

That video and its associated images always come to mind when I engage in a rousing game of Umbrella Tetris. Look it up, and you can laugh too.