THAT’S BOCCIA!
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How many people actually fall for that? I feel like the “don’t put metal in a microwave” thing is so well known at this point that people don’t realize that it has less to do with the fact that it’s metal and more to do with its shape. Lots of microwaves have metal racks in them, they’re just shaped such that they don’t pose any risk.
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- I know.
- Like there really is a significant difference…
I know that you know, but still.
And yes. It matters.
Boccia ist for old conservative know-it-alls with a knack for playing outside the boundary if it suits them.
Petanque is for old socialist philosophers with no bounds who however are sticklers for The Law (aka The Rules).
In short: one can’t imagine Conny kissing Fanny.
However, if you insist on using aluminium balls, you might as well play Boccia. I’ve got my brass&steel balls, which are needed for petanque. And I am very attached to them.
There was a time when aluminum - or an aluminum alloy, was used in their manufacture. It was when they were looking for something more practical, durable, more easily sourced and less labor intensive than the nail-studded boxwood root balls, which replaced bare boxwood root balls, before they settled on two thick steel hemispheres joined together. I agree that aluminum isn’t ideal when compared to the others, but they were definitely used for a time and did work.
Some beautiful examples of old, nail-studded balls:
http://www.museedelaboule.com/fabrication.htm
The first all-metal boules were made in about 1925, by Le Boule Integral. They were cast in a single piece from a rather soft alloy of bronze and aluminum. Integral no longer exists, but there are a couple of companies that still make the original bronze/aluminum boules. Since they are not made of an iron-based alloy they will not rust and they cannot be picked up by a magnetic boule-lifter. These boules have a bright gold/brass color. They are real shooter’s boules, they look great, and they are expensive.
At one time Integral also made leisure boules with a dull grey finish that looked more like aluminum than brass. Every now and then an old pair turns up on eBay. You can tell that they are Integral boules because they, too, are non-magnetic.
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Must… resist… making… cheap… joke… about… man… being… attached… to… his… balls…
(I’ll get my coat.)
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Wait, what? Do you see a wheelchair?
That’s bocce, thank you.
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Holy hell.
Colour me pink and put a unicorn tail in my arse: I had no idea.
I play Obut, but I had a set of Integral’s. I didn’t know. Hell, I must have played about 40 tournaments with them and didn’t know they were aluminium alloy. I never spared a thought on that, I just assumed they were brass with a shell of something other non-magnetic. But I of course realised they were non-magnetic, because I was quite pissed at some point that I couldn’t lift them like the cool kids with one of those magnets on a string.
You know what’s the worst about it? I left them at the club when I moved, and never returned to claim them. And they were expensive as expensive shit in the first place.
Thanks for that link, that’s double interesting cause its written for the other side of the pond. 
Also, @FGD135, how come I beg for puns with a bag of balls and you refuse, resist?
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I can think of several metals that would be worse.
Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Caesium, and probably Francium if you could get enough of it. Any neutron, beta or gamma radiation emitting metal is bad too, although I doubt you would get a critical mass of it.
Seriously though, what do you think are the metals that would be worse than aluminium?
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I was waiting for someone to correct me. Now we got the balls rolling!
However, I would insist the pic @FGD135 posted is Boccia. 
German usage weirdly is Boule for petanque, and Boccia for bocce. And the guy depicted is, until now, the longest-serving German chancellor. Merkel is coming for his record…
I can’t help it, but a Boule made from depleted uranium would be cool. And heavy.
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That’s another of my mutant powers.
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Boccia has no walls around it!
…you even mentioned “playing outside the boundary,” so now I’m confused if you’re messing with me. There are wooden walls in the picture.
Though now reading up to it some weirdos apparently call “bocce” “boccia,” but not this Italian.
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FGD135 triggered me with the picture, and I am pretty sure they are a German native speaker. The guy in the pic is Konrad Adenauer, who played bocce, but any German native speaker will tell you he played boccia (and recognise him). Add the weirdness of the term boule being widely used for a game which, as per its rulebook, is called petanque. AFAIK, even some (most?) French do.
We played some bowles of our own here, full of possible in-jokes. Seems we get on like a ball of aluminium foil in a microwave.
However, that I seriously didn’t know about the aluminium alloy adds an extra layer. 
As Adenauer famously said (on the record, in regard to parliament, no less): Was kümmert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern!
Similar to polishing a turd.
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Conny also had a more polished version of this along the lines of “You can’t seriously criticize me for having a greater knowledge today than I had last week”.
Anyway, loan words… weird, but mostly harmless. That’s why we don’t have mobile phones; we have Handys.
And quite often cringeworthy when the marketing folks start using them to concoct cool slogans. You keep using that word…
The most recent one I tripped over was foosball table. That’s a Tischkicker, or Kicker for short.
Well, a quick look at my watch tells me that it’s time to pick up my body bag and go if I don’t want to be late for the public viewing. Ciao!
(Edited for mispelings.)
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That was a good one, wasn’t it?
Some folks I know work in a DFG-funded program for junior researcher groups. They are called free floaters…
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I have never played any of these games, but I dig how into them you are.
Desperate not to have my fleece PJs act like a Van de Graaff generator I tried an internet old wives’ tail that says some crumpled foil in the wash will reduce static. Can’t say if it really worked, but after leaving it in the washer for some months I was surprised at how round, dense, and shiny the ball became.
tl;dr:
- leave a crumpled ball of tin foil in the washer for months
- wash clothes as normal
- profit!
