toy shoppe

today, walking out of cub, i noticed a machine in the mini-arcade in the entryway labeled “toy shoppe : test your skill.” it was one of those machines with the tightly-stuffed-in stuffed animals and the grabber-claw - the kind that are almost impossible to win. it reminded me of that freaky screaming child-lion doll in the claw-box game at perkins in lakeville. anyway, the problem is that this “game” is neither a shop(pe) nor a skill test: it is rather a carnival attraction that does not require ye olde carne to rob your children of your money. skill is no matched for a fixed game, and your money is exchanged for nothing more than the weak whirring noise of an electric motor. and what, exactly, is it about these machines that makes them so “olde?”