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Odd man out
Choosing with odds & evens wasn't a universally practiced ritual. Some places
used the old Rock, Scissor, Paper approach. The winner was determined by the
relationship of the represented objects (rock breaks the scissors, scissors
cut paper, paper covers the rock). If you threw out the same figure you'd
shoot again.
It wasn't always necessary to have two team captains choose up the sides. If
there were only 4 players, you could do a group thing, stating in unison "the
two same fingers are together." You'd chant and shoot until two people had
thrown a one and the other two people had thrown twos; those were the sides.
This could also be used to decide which kids played next (if three kids were
waiting and they needed a two man team, "the two same fingers are together"
could determine the side). Another variation was "odd man out." Here the
person who did not throw the same as the others have to sit-out the game.
This was helpful in situations of up to four or five players, when you needed
to exclude one from the team.
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