Word: mouseboat
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...storm broke in Hobbies, a magazine devoted to the delights of private boondoggling. A recent issue included a report on a new sport-mouseboat racing -the invention of a ten-year-old anonymous moppet. Necessary paraphernalia: 18-inch racing boats, mice, a bathtub or pond. In racing, the mice propel the boats by walking a treadmill attached to a small paddle wheel. Said Hobbies: "No cruelty is imposed on the creature since experience shows that mice derive much enjoyment from their wheel-turning activity...
...Royal Society deplored the sport. Said an R.S.P.C.A. inspector with finality: "Anyone who knows about boys will know that ... the mice will be prodded unmercifully to ginger them up." Britons tensed themselves for a finish fight. Then the iron curtain clanked down. Hobbies censored all news of mouseboat racing, refused to divulge even the inventor's name...
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