Dear Liza,
Yesterday I learned about a really cool thing. Since there are are no professional sports to watch because of the corona virus shut down people have been missing having games (any games) to cheer at. John Oliver featured something called “Jelle Marble Races” on his show, “Last Week Tonight”. We were curious, and went to the Youtube site to see.
These are so much fun! In 2006 a fellow named Jelle Bakker, who lives in the Netherlands, created this YouTube channel that shows marble races. These are run on enormous tracks that he creates, both indoors and outside in the forest. He even creates marble sized arenas from Duplo bricks and fills them with marble-fans.
The runs are interesting and well-made, and the marbles are the big fat ones so we can see them easily. The filming and commentary are comparable with professional sports, with wide angles and close-ups, even split screen and slo-mo for the photo finishes.
We chose our favorites and were soon cheering. Auntie Bridgett cheered for Blue Moon and Deep Ocean, and Grandpa Nelson and I rooted for an orange and black marble named Nemo. We didn’t win, didn’t care, and had so much fun!
The eight-year-old in me is inspired! Jelle uses sand for his outdoor tracks and smooth wood for inside, but even if you don’t have either of those, I’m sure you could come up with a way to make a fabulous marble run!
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 