Rubber Duck to Queen's Bishop 3

The National Toy Hall of Fame recently announced their inductees. First of all, who knew there was a Toy Hall of Fame? Well there is, and it's in Rochester, New York. They started inducting toys in 1998. Some of them are specific brand names, like Play-Doh and Barbie, but others are quite broad--the "ball" wasn't inducted until 2009.

The 2013 inductees are the rubber duck and chess. Since I heard this on the radio a few weeks I've been kind of tickled by this. These two toys (although I don't know if you can consider chess a toy) are at the opposite spectrums of necessary I.Q. to play. A rubber duck only requires an opposable thumb and the requisite brain power to use it, while chess requires a decent I.Q. to learn the rules and a genius level intellect to master.

Both of them also have vague beginnings. The rubber date back to the development of rubber manufacturing in the 19th century, via methods invented by Charles Goodyear. The article on them in Wikipedia doesn't discuss the history of bath toys, but I would imagine that they became prevalent at roughly the same time, when bathing became more common (in the olden days, some people only bathed once a year--it was thought that bathing caused illness) and childhood as we know it emerged, during the Victorian era.

I don't remember having a rubber duck, though I probably did. I do remember using bath time as a time of play, but I could make do with a wet wash rag. I also seem to remember having toy boats and submarines. It's interesting to learn that the rubber duck really took off, so to speak, with the song "Rubber Duckie," by the Muppets creator Jim Henson. It has also made cultural and scientific marks--a load of 29,000 of them were loosened from a Chinese ship, and an oceanographer tracked their movement around the Pacific Ocean (some ended up in Australia, others in the Bering Strait). A giant rubber duck by Dutch artist Florentjin Hofman, which is about six stories tall, has floated in various harbors around the world.

Chess was believed to have developed in 6th century India. The first books of strategy date back to the 14th century, so this is an old game (not quite as old as the ball, but pretty old nonetheless). I taught myself to play using a book from the library when I was about 12 or so, but my level of skill hasn't advanced much from that stage. I just don't have the spatial kind of intelligence necessary for it. I can't remember the last time I played.

Now chess is considered to be the province of eccentric geniuses. I think Bobby Fischer forever associated the game, at least for Americans, with first-class loons. You can still become pretty rich and famous playing it though--Gary Kasparov, considered to be the greatest chess player of all time, has done pretty well for himself. But since Fischer, there hasn't been an American champion, so at least here in the U.S. chess isn't as big a deal. I had to look up who the champion is now--it's Viswanathan Anand of India.

Some of the nominees that didn't make the cut but should be no-brainers for future election are the Magic 8 Ball, My Little Pony, and my favorite growing up, little green army men.