19. “Are You There, Moriarty?” was an excuse for kids to hit each other.
Inspired by the famous villain from Sherlock Holmes, people living in Victorian England invented a game to play their favorite characters. Both players would wear blindfolds and lay on their stomachs a few feet away from one another, holding their left hands, to ensure that the other hasn’t run away. They both hold rolled up newspapers in their right hand. The two players take turns being Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. Just like the game Marco Polo, the person playing Sherlock will be blindfolded, and ask, “Are you there, Moriarty?” The other player says, “Yes”, as they avoid getting hit by the newspaper while they are still lying on their stomach.