{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/457",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 457,
    "subject": "Aztec ball game",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-10-26T16:54:00+00:00",
    "last": "1997-10-26T16:54:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0008-0609@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-10-26T16:54:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Aztec ball game",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Reply:  Item #4734471 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#\n\nGordon,\n\nWelcome aboard!\n\nRe: the ballgame of Viron as being more Aztec than basketball.  Well,\nyes and no.\n\nThe Aztec ball game, \"ollamaliztli,\" does feature a court with two\nvertically oriented rings (in contrast to the horizontal rings of\nbasket ball) and a rubber ball smaller than a tennis ball.  However,\nollamaliztli players can only use their hips, knees, and elbows to\nshoot the ball through the ring--Silk throws it with his hand.\n\nThe ring that Silk throws the ball at seems parallel to the wall it\nis on--more like a dart board, with the inner section removed.  The\ntrigger within the hole is called a hellstone, which is interesting\nbecause in ollamaliztli the game is said to be symbolic of the\nstruggle of the sun: one ring is the entrance to the underworld, the\nother ring is the exit from the underworld.  If there is another ring\non the Vironese court, its trigger might be called the heavenstone.\n\nThe target ring reminded and reminds me most of the goal in movie\n\"Rollerball\"!  But otherwise the game played in Viron seems to me to\nbe a blend of ollamaliztli, basketball, and baseball pitching.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}