I spy

I spy is a guessing game where the Spy or It says "I spy with my little eye..." and players have to guess the object the Spy saw.

Rules

Traditionally the game is played inside a car, though eHow recommends airports, waiting rooms and around the house as objects can go by too quickly when moving. About Parenting recommends it for "doctor's offices, restaurants and other places where you sometimes have to wait with kids", and also discourages its use in moving cars. The way players choose who will be the Spy/It can range from the noncompetitive alternating of turns to a game of skill/chance such as rock, paper, scissors. The Spy silently selects an object that is visible to all the players and does not reveal their choice. They then say, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with ...", naming the letter the chosen object starts with (e.g. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with C" if the chosen object is a car). An alternative version is substituting the initial letter for an adjective such as the colour of the object (e.g. "I spy with my little eye something blue"), while another is to say "I Spy with my little eye something that sounds like". Some sites such as About Parenting describe the letter version has the variant to the colour-based game. This site has the form "I spy something, and it's blue" as the traditional version, deeming "I spy with my little eye..." as an alternative. Having clues based on an object's shape is another alternative, while quick thinkers can deliberately choose objects that can only be seen for a limited amount of time. Howcast notes that looking at an object when announcing its colour is a "dead giveaway" so this should be avoided. Another variation that encourages language development involves the Spy giving various descriptive clues, such as describing a watch as "something that made of metal and glass that makes a quiet noise".

I-Spy (Michelin)

The I-SPY books are spotters' guides written for British children, and particularly successful in the 1950s and 1960s in their original form and again when relaunched by Michelin in 2009 after a seven-year gap in publishing.

The I-SPY Tribe was based on the I-SPY Books, some forty small volumes that sold in hundreds of thousands. Each book covered a subject such as I-SPY Cars, I-SPY on the Pavement, I-SPY Churches, I-SPY on a Train Journey, etc. As children spotted objects such as coalhole covers, oak trees, semaphore signals, fire engines, whelks, and so on, they recorded the event in the relevant book, and gained points. Once the book was complete, it could be sent to Big Chief I-SPY for a feather and order of merit.

Background

The company was supposedly run by a Red Indian chief called Big Chief I-Spy. The original Big Chief I-Spy was Charles Warrell, a former head master who created I-Spy towards the end of his working life. He retired in 1956, but lived on until 1995 when he died at the age of 106. After Warrell's retirement his assistant Arnold Cawthrow became the second Big Chief, and served in this role until 1978. For part of this time he also worked as an antiques dealer in Islington. He died in 1993, and is commemorated by a stone plaque placed on the outside of the Boatmen's Rooms, the house where he spent some of his last years in Deal, Kent. Members of the I-Spy Tribe were called Redskins, and the head office was variously known as the Wigwam by the Water or the Wigwam-by-the-Green. The former was located for some years next to the Mermaid Theatre at Blackfriars, while the latter was in London's Edgware Road.

I Spy (band)

I Spy was a Canadian hardcore punk band founded in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1991, relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1994, and disbanded in 1996. Combining childish humour and politically oriented emotive hardcore, the group released several records on Recess Records and toured internationally. Front man Todd Kowalski later joined Propagandhi.

History

Career

Originally called Clump (alternately Klump), the band was composed of lead singer and guitarist Todd Kowalski ("Todd the Rod"), lead guitarist Jeromy Van Dusen ("Rary"), bassist Juan David Guerrero ("Guido" or "Olive"), and drummer James Ash ("Jimmy Juice Pig"). With a blend of childish humour and serious, radical left wing political subject matter, the band garnered a following in the Canadian punk rock scene behind several releases on Recess Records and extensive touring.

In 1994, the band released a split 10" record with fellow Winnipeg band Propagandhi, and the two bands toured together throughout western Canada that year. Later in 1994, the band toured throughout the Midwestern United States independently. In 1995, they toured the western United States, western Canada, and Europe. Van Dusen left the band in 1995 after the band's European tour, reducing them to a three-piece in their latter days. The final lineup found bassist Sean Talarico replacing Guerrero, who moved back to Regina.