Rube Thursday

Happy Rube Thursday, a day to celebrate Rube Goldberg machines, the over-engineered contraptions that perform a very simple task.

Did Hogwash inspire you to think up or build crazy contraptions? Here’s another book we recently found, Lights Out by Arthur Geisert. This story is about a little piggy who doesn’t want to sleep in the dark. So he comes up with a plan and builds a very complicated machine that turns the lights back on.

As we talked through this book (there is no text other than on the first page), several interesting questions emerged:

• Before building his machine, the little piggy drew blueprints and schematics. Why?
• Do all the parts really work? What would had happened if a curious squirrel picked up one of the pieces and put it down in a different spot? What if the strong gust of wind blew? What if an elephant stomped in the yard?
• The machine takes so long to produce the result (turn the lights on), that the little piggy falls asleep. What can the piggy do differently?
• If you were to build a machine, what would it do?