44 Comments on “In Other News This May Be My Next Author Photo”

1. If the number of Cornhole Kickstarters I’ve seen are any indication, you’re absolutely correct.

2. Yep, lots of cornhole down here in North Carolina.

   Though I have to admit the first time someone told me that was the name of the game I said, “Bullshit.”

3. Before you use this in a professional context, you may want to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornhole_(disambiguation) first.

4. Cornhole? That’s like four years ago. It was replaced by ladder ball and that’s already passé. I’m sure the cool kids will tell us what’s in now.

5. Glenn Glazer:

   Oh, I know allllllll about that other definition, trust me. It’s what makes the jersey fun!

6. I’m pleased and relieved that you foresaw the confusion on which definition of cornhole you were using. I didn’t know that game was called that. Truly, thou art wise, Milord Scalzi :)

7. Every time I see that name I just giggle. First time I was asked to play Cornhole my response equated to, “Dude, I like you, but I don’t go that way.” To which my friend replied with the quizzical dog head tilt. Not sure how it is out your way, but here in rural NE Ohio, it’s a cottage industry with many a road sign for people making “league” cornhole sets in their garages.

8. I was thinking along the same lines as Mr. Glazer.
   When I was a kid, lo these many years ago, it always referred to a game played in prison where you didn’t want to be asked to play catcher.
   Many years later I was surprised to learn it was also another name for the more innocuous “Bean Bag Toss.”

9. At first I thought you were going back to a previous blog post about @$$holes.

10. John: Ah, good. As long as you know.

11. I grew up playing beanbags, which from times I’ve seen cornhole played, is a completely different game.

12. After living in the Mid-Atlantic for almost 15 years now I can almost hear “cornhole” without snickering. Almost.

13. What? Cornhole is hipster now? Aw, man. I like cornhole.

14. Ahhh, yes, Scalzi undoubtedly grew up watching The Great Cornholio on MTV.

15. Worst. Game name. *Ever*.

16. I’d never heard of Cornhole until I moved to NC. The first time some guy asked me if I wanted to play “Cornhole” with him, I had a _Deliverance_ flashback.

17. I don’t commonly hear that name. We call it Bags.

18. We had that game in the small New England town where I grew up, though for the life of me I can’t remember if it had a real name other than “beanbag toss”. I think our high school had a setup for it but it was never used except at town fairs. I always filed it away with other Old Timey Games (like horseshoes or croquet) that us kids never played but somehow got roped into by our uncles. :p

19. I moved to a central Illinois college town from Indiana, and when I mentioned seeing a bunch of students out playing cornhole one evening to my coworkers, they stared at me. Apparently here it’s called “bags”.

20. I like how it says “American,” like we need to be clear about its origins. As if any other nation would be playing that game under that name.

21. Played that at our recent family reunion. I kinda ignored the stupid name, & had fun tossing the beanbags & missing. Physically inept, that I am!

22. People play it at lunch in a public roof garden in Cambridge Massachusetts. It’s mainstream and yesterday.

23. Perhaps cornhole has a different meaning from what I am accustomed?

24. Just for the record: they aren’t beanbags. They’re filled with corn, not beans. Hence the name “cornhole.”

    My wife and I made a set of boards this summer.

25. Please tell me you’re not a hipster, John.

26. Cornhole?? Oh, now I remember that. Went to an outside tavern in Seattle with my wife to see an old friend of hers (she played sax in a 70s-era cover band). They had cornhole. And, yup, it was a pretty hipster place, come to think of it.

    What I want to play is this: walking football.

27. Wouldn’t real hipsters use bags filled with edamame?

28. Toronto has a literally underground bar with indoor shuffleboard and bocce ball. The scent of PBR and beard oil is strong.

29. Scorpius:

    I am too old to be a hipster.

30. That just means you were hipster before it was cool, Scalzi.

31. Corn-hole is lame, a sport for those who find frisbee golf too challenging. 23-man Squamish, now there’s a sport, laddie.

32. What are you holding in your other hand? Is that a camera remote?

33. New for my bucket list, becoming a Cornstar.

34. I played that as a kid, except with wheat instead of corn, and auger instead of a flat board with a hole in it, shovels instead of beanbags, and we called it “farming.”

35. We enjoy playing cornhole, and have taught our sons and young nieces to enjoy it, too. It saddens me to think that this game could be appropriated by hipsters…I know – we will give them lawn darts!

    Although I suspect that brucearthur is correct – hipsters would almost certainly use edamame-filled bags.

36. I really enjoy bags. I, however, cannot get behind the name Cornhole.

37. Well, I guess that explains why 2 of those things recently appeared in the common room at work. We like to think we’re very hip.

38. What kind of loser am I? I thought Hoover Ball was going to be the next hipster trend. I bought shares in a Hoover Ball factory and everything.

39. Is the trophy a golden roll of tp?

40. Bring back Moopsball

41. We’re having a cornhole tournament at work to raise money for charity. It is Very Competitive.

    (Also I get persistent errors when I try to comment here: WP makes me log in, which is fine, but once I get logged in I am directed to a blank page located at http://whatever.scalzi.com/wp-comments-post.php and am unable to determine if I’ve commented or not, so if there are two comments from me that’s why.)

42. Cornhole is totally mainstream here in Minnesota. Kubb is the up-and-coming lawn game, but I think there’s too much equipment required for it to have real hipster appeal.

43. Different meaning of cornhole apparently…

44. What do these hipster people call footgolf? Association Hole?