I was dangerously late to this particular party. My editor told me that I should try to play some crokinole while I was at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, as it's become popular recently, and my first reaction was that he'd just made that word up.

When I complained to my board-gaming friends, it turned out that they had all not only played crokinole before, but several already owned their own boards. One was even reasonably certain that he’d played the game with me.