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1.1 Popular games in Monaco 5

The playing fieldis much wider than before.Therefore, the game must
be modified. Each player starts at the clubhouse, with their expensive
designer handbags filled with pebbles.With closed eyes, they throw the
first littlestone in a random direction, and then theywalktowhere this
stone has landed.Atthatposition, a new pebble is fetched fromthe
handbag, and a new throw follows.Asbefore, the aim of the game is to
sweep out the heliport square evenly in order to compute the number ,
but the distance players can cover from where they stand is much smaller
than the dimensions of the field.A problem arises whenever there is a
rejection, as in the case ofa ladywith closed eyes at a point c near the
boundaryofthe square-shaped domain, who has just throwna pebbleto
aposition outside the landing pad.Itis noteasy tounderstand whether
she shouldsimply move on, orclimb the fence and continue until,by
accident, she returns to the heliport.
What the lady shoulddo,after a throw outside the heliport, is very
surprising: where she stands, there is already apebble onthe ground.
She shouldnow ask someone to bring her the “outfielder”,place it on
top ofthe stone alreadyonthe ground, and use a new stone to try
another fling.If this is again an “outfielder”,she shouldhave it fetched
and increase the pilebyone again, etc. Eventually,the lady moves on,
visits other areas of the heliport, and also gets close to the center, which
is without rejections.

Fig. 1.3 Landing pad of the heliport at the end of the game.

The game played by the lady and her friends continues until the early
morning, when the heliport has to be prepared for the day’stakeoffsand
landings.Before the cleaning starts, a strange pattern ofpebbles onthe
ground may be noticed (see Fig.1.3):far inside the square, there are
only singlestones, because fromthere,peopledo notthrow far enough
to reach the outfield.However, close to the boundaries, and especially in
the corners, piles ofseveral stones appear.This is quite mind-boggling,