By Ronda Messick Bumgardner
Media General News Service

Q. Is it true that if you are forced to withdraw money from an ATM, you can notify police by entering your PIN in reverse? An e-mail about this rumor states: “For example if your PIN number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.” - M.H.

A. This is false.

The urban legend persists, perhaps because the idea does exist. It has even been patented by a man named Joseph Zingher, who calls it the SafetyPIN system. But no banks have adopted it.
Some people question whether such a system might do more harm than good.

In an article in American Banker, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association asks, “Would someone be able to remember their number under duress, and could that hesitation actually cause them harm?”

The Urban Legends Reference Page, http://www.snopes.com says, “victims’ fumbling around while trying to trigger silent alarms could cause their captors to realize something was up and take those realizations out on their captives.”

Whether those fears are valid or not, it is important to understand that if you enter a reverse PIN at any ATM, the machine will not send the police, and it will not produce any money.

Q. I recall reading about a man-made kayak/rafting park near Charlotte. Can you give me the contact information and address of the park? - L.H.
A. The U.S. National Whitewater Center’s address is 820 Hawfield Road, Charlotte, NC 28214.

The artificial river - the biggest man-made whitewater river in the world - is the centerpiece, but the center also features trails for running, hiking and mountain biking, a climbing center, a ropes course and access to the Catawba River for gentler canoeing and kayaking experiences.

You can get more information about the center by visiting http://www.usnwc.org or by calling 704-391-3900.

Q. Whatever happened to the Duke star J.J. Redick who turned pro a couple of years ago? - B.J.S
A. Redick played for Duke University as a guard from 2002 to 2006. His No. 4 jersey was retired on Feb. 4, 2007 - the 13th Duke jersey to be retired.
The honor was given to Redick after he set an NCAA career record with 457 three-pointers; he also holds school and Atlantic Coast Conference scoring records, in addition to being the 16th highest scorer in NCAA history, with 2,769 points.

Redick was selected to play basketball for the USA Under-21 World Championship Team in the summer 2005, and he was the team’s fourth-leading scorer.

He was the 11th overall draft pick by the Orlando Magic in the 2006 NBA Draft and wears the number 7. You can view his biography at http://www.nba.com/magic and game stats for his professional career at http://www.nba.com/playerfile/jj_redick/index.html?nav=page.

Q. Is the game of marbles still played today? Are any contests being played? Also, can you find out when the game originated? - B.P.
A. People have been playing marbles for thousands of years - going back at least to the time of the ancient Romans - and they still play marbles today.

And there are plenty of competitions around.

For example, the National Marbles Tournament, which was first held in 1922, will be held June 15-19 in Wildwood, N.J. It is for children younger than 14. For information about the tournament, visit its Web site at http://www.nationalmarblestournament.org.

The Web site of the U.S. Marble Championship, a tournament open to players of any age, can be found at http://www.omnilex.com/usmarbles.

The British World Marbles Championship is played each year outside a pub in Tinsley Green, England. And other tournaments are played around the world in many different countries.

The tournament at Tinsley Green is especially interesting. In its current form it goes back to the 1930s, but its history goes back hundreds of years.

According to The Marble Museum, at http://www.marblemusem.org: “It’s said that in the time of Good Queen Bess, two young men, one from Surrey the other from Sussex competed for the hand of a maiden from Tinsley, which is just on the border of the two counties. They played all the major sports of the time; Archery, Falconry, Wrestling and the like. After each match they were adjudged equal; then one of them came up with the game of Marbles.

“As an odd number of marbles are used in the game one of them had to be the winner. Unfortunately history does not record the name of the first marble champion, but the game has continued right up to the present day.”

Many different games can be played with marbles, and players can make up their own versions. Perhaps the most common game is called ringer.

In ringer, marbles are arranged inside a circle, and players take turns flicking larger marbles called shooters at the marbles in the circle. The object is to knock marbles out of the circle, while keeping the shooter inside the circle. The small marbles are sometimes called “mibs” and marbles players are sometimes called “mibsters.”

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