Talk:Cat's cradle

Etymology

I noted that the Oxford English Dictionary disputes the 'cratch-cradle' derivation. Oxford gives this etymology:

Origin probably fanciful: the guess that it ‘may have been’ cratch-cradle is not founded on facts. (Second Edition 1989)

Since Oxford states it "is not founded on facts", should we be advocating an etymology it implies is false and nothing more than conjecture? Can anyone give a reliable source to counter Oxford's claim?

--Dforest 04:17, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

In 1906 Haddon (Jayne, p.2) said "no satisfactory derivation has ever been given (see Murray N.E.D.)." Hyacinth 23:07, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

The novel

I removed the below

The game of cat's cradle is featured as a motif in Kurt Vonnegut's 1963 novel Cat's Cradle. Early in the book, we learn that Felix Hoenikker, fictional "Father of the Atomic Bomb" was playing cat's cradle when Hiroshima was destroyed. The game is later referred to by Newt Hoenikker, Felix's dwarf son, who describes the game by saying "No damn cat, and no damn Cradle"; thus expressing his view that the concepts and ideals taught by all human parents to their children are arbitrary conventions, and that life itself is essentially meaningless.

Felix uses the game as a metaphor. What we are really looking at is a meaningless piece of string, but in the game of cat's cradle we are choosing to see grand and complex objects that are not really there.

Hyacinth 02:57, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Distribution

The lede contains the uncited statement "Versions of this game have been found in indigenous cultures throughout the world—from the Arctic to the Equatorial zones" (Emphasis mine). I'm wondering if the additional qualification of the emphasised text is needed as if taken at face value it would imply that the game is only found in the northern hemisphere? Kiore (talk) 06:10, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

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• String Figures and How to Make Them.djvu

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:21, 2 July 2019 (UTC)