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SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1 | SUNDAY FEBRUARY 2 2020
SPORTS Flying Fish club SUNDAY member Matt Gibson soaring for BREAKFAST A chat with platform tennis pro Alison Morgan. P14 New Trier swim team. P12
SOCIAL SCENE Scenes from Highwood charity breakfast benefit French Toast of Love. P9
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NEWS
The Notorious R.B.G. ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOSTS EXHIBIT DEDICATED TO RUTH BADER GINSBURG BY DEBBIE LEE THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
No matter where you land on the political spectrum, there is no denying that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has left an indelible mark on the zeitgeist. The second woman—and first Jewish female—to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice is not only a historical game-changer but a pop culture icon, spawning a fandom that could rival the Beyhive or Beatlemania. And now she’s also the living subject of a major traveling exhibition. On February 9, the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will host Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Based on the New York Times’ bestselling book of the same name, the exhibition is originally a collaboration between co-authors Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It is described as “a vibrant exploration of Justice Ginsburg’s life and her numerous, often-simultaneous roles as a student, wife, mother, lawyer, judge, women’s rights pioneer, and Internet phenomenon.” But before the book, there was the viral blog. In June of 2013, while a student at New York
GAME ON
NEW TRIER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SUMMON THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL SIDES, LAUNCH BARRIER BATTLES GAME “That was satisfying, very satisfying, seeing them play our game during a break,” recalls Becker, a Glencoe resident like Levy. “I realized then that the game was bigger than myself.” The scene warmed New Trier High School The game is a simple one with few rules, senior Bobby Becker’s heart. though it rewards dexterity and sound strateIt was ninth period in the school’s Trevian gies. Participants have an infinite number of Commons (aka the student cafeteria) one day possibilities on how to choose to build a base last semester, when he noticed two device- with game pieces and attack the foe’s base. It free—device-free!—teens playing the board does not come with a board; it can be played game Barrier Battles on a table. on any level surface. Becker didn’t know either of them. The object of Barrier Battles: eliminate the But he knew all about Barrier Battles—he opposing king piece barricaded by blocks and and classmate Kyle Levy invented it last spring other pieces. Players battle for the ouster of and started selling it ($19.99) nationwide in royalty by flicking their pieces to change posiearly January. The game had been introduced tion, vanquish enemy pieces, and destroy the to NTHS students in the fall through the enemy base. Barrier Battles club at the Winnetka school. It’s a combination of chess, curling (minus BY BILL MCLEAN
THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
the brooms and ice), shuffleboard, billiards, and caroms. Somebody called it the successor to the board game Crossbows and Catapults. “Both of us, while growing up,” Levy says, “had played a similar game to Barrier Battles. Bobby approached me last spring, asking about my interest in helping him publish and finetune a table game that he had come up with as a young child. “The opportunity to use my skills in business and product design excited me,” adds Levy, a 3D printing whiz with a career goal of serving a tech company as its chief financial officer. The best friends and co-owners of the company K-Bob Games—each wrote about the business endeavor for their college-appliContinued on PG 8
Continued on PG 8
BARRIER’ BUDS: New Trier High School seniors Kyle Levy (left) and Bobby Becker hold pieces of the board-game-without-a-board, Barrier Battles. The best friends invented it, formed the company K-Bob Games, and began selling the game in early January. PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK THABIT
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