Friday, September 25, 2015

Anachronisms Bug Me

Really. Enough so that when I come across something that looks like one, I research it.

Zeke and Ned, by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, is a fictionalized account of the doings of Ned Christie and Zeke Proctor. So far I've gotten as far as Proctor's arrest for the killing of Jim Kesterson ("T. Spade" in the novel), prelude to the Goingsnake Massacre; he's been put in jail to await trial by a Cherokee judge, and he passes the time by playing Chinese Checkers with anyone available (until his dog eats some of the marbles, anyway).

This would have been in early 1872.

Chinese Checkers wasn't invented until 1892 (in Germany, under the name "Stern-Halma") and wasn't marketed in America under the name "Chinese Checkers" until 1928.

Just thought I'd gripe a little.

No comments: