Comments on: Fort Kickass

Fort Kickass

Room 641-A — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:46:52 -0800

A blanket fort is a construction commonly made using blankets, bed sheets, pillow, and sofa cushions. It is also known as a couch fort, pillow fort, or sheet fort.

TAXONOMY

Fuck Yeah! Blanket Forts Pillow Forts

Pin It! Blanket Forts Pillow Forts

Here, let me Google that for you. Blanket Forts Pillow Forts

/r/ Blanket Forts Pillow Forts Ruffing it

Dogs in couch forts IN THE NEWS

Lessons in the Art of Pillow Fort Construction

Checkout time is noon

Vote Blanket Party! ONLINE

Apartment Therapy ON SCREEN

Community

Family Guy

Funny or Die

Dragon Tales BEAT THIS

The Longest Blanket Fort Known To Man

Lincoln Military Housing's "Longest Blanket Fort" PREVIOUSLY

Ideas for blanket forts?

Blanket Fort Party

Krak des Blanketiers

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down Again OBLIGATORY

xkcd Also, boxes.

By: ivan ivanych samovar

ivan ivanych samovar — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:54:03 -0800

I have also heard "nappy fort."

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 11:58:03 -0800

This my forte.

By: Doleful Creature

Doleful Creature — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:03:16 -0800

I, too, had an AskMe related to this topic. Blanket forts RULE

By: Phantomx

Phantomx — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:04:52 -0800

The semester after I graduated I still lived in the same apartment with my roommate. We took in three strays in that time. One was my tiny kitten we named Whiskey and the others were females fleeing bad relationships. The girls slept out in the living room in a giant couch fort we all had made. I have a picture of all of us crammed in there with a tiny Christmas tree and me holding my diploma. I love couch forts.

By: sonascope

sonascope — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:19:43 -0800

The most kickass blanket fort of all time would have to be the nest in "A Pail of Air." That's a blanket fort.

By: Slackermagee

Slackermagee — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:21:27 -0800

HAHAHAHA, the Fairmont hotel guy is the brother of my roommate. I knew that would swim around the web for longer than he thought.

By: DirtyOldTown

DirtyOldTown — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:37:37 -0800

We bought the young'n this set of blanket fort building sticks for Christmas and fort building in our home quickly escalated into an all-consuming game of family oneupsmanship. Highly recommended.

By: orme

orme — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:37:51 -0800

Holy sheet. You've really got the subject well covered here. Ok, this wraps up my awful puns.

By: Parasite Unseen

Parasite Unseen — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:48:18 -0800

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of my mind screaming about the GREATEST IDEA FOR AN IRL MEETUP EVER.

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:50:17 -0800

This my forte. Finally, someone who pronounces it correctly!

By: Room 641-A

Room 641-A — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:58:32 -0800

Oh, I almost forgot! FOOTAGE NOT FOUND

Buster and Lucille 2's blanket fort

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:00:53 -0800

Hey, just five more days until the crushing disappointment of a Harmon/Stamatopoulos/Goldman/Donovan/Russo/Russo-free Season 4 of Community!

By: madajb

madajb — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:39:01 -0800

I'm kind of a purist when it comes to blanket tents. You have to use only the materials and structural devices available in your room. Once you start bringing in pvc pipes and other outside structural elements, it's all too much. After all, at least half the fun my child has blanket tents is the threat of imminent collapse.

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:02:45 -0800

I know a shortcut- through the Turkish district!

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:14:39 -0800

"Your authority is not recognized in Fort Kickass!"

By: alltomorrowsparties

alltomorrowsparties — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:18:53 -0800

Two years ago, in a fog of depression and loneliness, I built myself a blanket fort in my living room and declared that day, October 22, to be International Blanket Fort Day, sharing pictures and a declaration of fort building for peace on my Facebook page. Several of my friends then posted pictures of their own constructions. It cheered everyone up considerably. Yay for blanket forts!!

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:35:43 -0800

There used to be a band around here called Couch Fort, which struck me as the second-best band name ever, after Vacation Bible School.

By: sonascope

sonascope — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:35:48 -0800

Speaking of blanket forts, we had a variation in my home growing up that was relatively distinctive. I grew up in a log house in Scaggsville, Maryland that had one heat register on the whole second floor, a weird low box of painted galvanized metal that just sat on the floor like a beachfront gun emplacement, with a grate that directed a relatively forceful stream of kerosene-scented hot air down the hallway. The thing was, if you were home alone, or at least with minimal parental supervision, you could bivouac on that thing with a big flannel sheet, pinning it down around the edges with volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia, and the furnace would inflate it into this perfect dome of pneumatic coziness. Sibling squabbles would subside, we'd all climb into the bubble, each with a book, and luxuriate in the tropical heat that we didn't get in our own unheated bedrooms. It was wonderful. Once, my father found the bubble fort inflated and started hollering at us, complaining about how we were freezing out the whole second floor, and midway through his lecture, we all peeked out of our rooms to see what was going on. There was a long pause, a series of quizzical looks between us and him, and finally, my grandmother emerged from the bubble fort to admonish him. "Jones, you're near to freezin' me to death in this house, and I aim to sit in here if I want to sit in here!" "Mother," he started to say, but she'd already pulled the World Books back into place. The dome puffed back out, and my father stomped down the stairs. Eventually, when the family's finances were better, he had full ductwork installed so each room had a register, and our frozen nights, quilt burials, and the shared security of the bubble fort became old memories. We were never quite so close again.

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:47:52 -0800

No mention of Problem Sleuth?

By: jb

jb — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:14:13 -0800

Yes, dedicated materials are cheating. Blanket forts must be made with only blankets, chairs, tables, etc (we built ours in the living room).

By: DirtyOldTown

DirtyOldTown — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:26:53 -0800

I used to be in the dedicated-materials-are-cheating camp, but after we encased an easy chair in a small castle for a sick four year old stuck watching cartoons all day, I reconsidered. Seriously: don't let your "We didn't have that in my day" old man voice scare you out of something awesome. Those things are a delight whose time was overdue, if anything.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:30:53 -0800

HAHAHAHA, the Fairmont hotel guy is the brother of my roommate. Heh, the Fairmont employee who arranged for the stuff is a really good friend of my wife & I. Oh, Canada!

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:32:37 -0800

Sorry, but this is one of my faves: Book Fort.

By: dhammond

dhammond — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:33:14 -0800

Cats have forts too.

By: Red Loop

Red Loop — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:20:18 -0800

sonascope, when I was a kid we did something similar, only it was summer in the south when it was brutally hot and humid, and we made a fort in the only room in the house with an air conditioner in the window. I could lay around in that comfort for hours, encased in a welcoming tomb of cotton and polyester.

By: Rustic Etruscan

Rustic Etruscan — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:18:36 -0800

Finally, someone who pronounces it correctly! "Usage Note: The word forte, coming from French fort, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word fort. Common usage, however, prefers the two-syllable pronunciation, (fôrt), which has been influenced possibly by the music term forte borrowed from Italian. In a recent survey a strong majority of the Usage Panel, 74 percent, preferred the two-syllable pronunciation. The result is a delicate situation; speakers who are aware of the origin of the word may wish to continue to pronounce it as one syllable but at an increasing risk of puzzling their listeners." The people have fortefied the forte. Sorry.

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:48:41 -0800

That's one of the best fort stories I've ever heard, sonascope.

By: snwod

snwod — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:10:25 -0800

Just watched this episode of Archer last night!

By: sperose

sperose — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:39:08 -0800

I have fond memories in college of making huge forts in our lounge for our floor. We would often bring in several bottles of booze and hang out playing board games until late in the evening and we'd all sleep cuddled up like a pile of puppies. Once, Security came through (on their usual rounds) and almost started to give us shit, but we had designed the fort to allow for clear access from the floor to the front door and so they just peeked in on us and went on their way.

By: andronicus

andronicus — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:48:54 -0800

Couch Cushion Architecture : A Critical Analysis

By: gusandrews

gusandrews — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:02:57 -0800

Can I get an amen for outdoor blanket forts? I remember a lovely one my mom helped me sling over a gnarled branch of the old apple tree when I was tiny in Maine, horsetail ferns underfoot, sorrel to gnaw on, apple blossoms overhead.

By: azpenguin

azpenguin — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:36:05 -0800

King size bed sheet. Pickup truck bed. Broomstick. Six other sticks. Take edges of sheet and cover truck bed. Push edges of sheet down into holes on edge of pickup bed and use other sticks to hold into place. Prop up center with broomstick. And Tada! Truck blanket fort!

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:04:00 -0800

Blanket and pillow forts are things I have been contemplating pretty intensely lately, so thank you for this FPP.

By: bystander

bystander — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:41:13 -0800

Tangentally related note: I once saw some plastic nut and bolt things that were used to join cardboard cartons to make all manner of castles, buses etc. Anybody know what they are called, have a link?

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:46:36 -0800

For other non-purists like myself and DirtyOldManTown, I recommend the EZ-Fort x2. The single set is too small (20 long, 14 short) to make anything HUGE, which is what everyone wants. The pieces are a little hard for small hands to put together, but my four y.o. does "OK" with help. (Adding tape on the ends is a good tip to ensure structural integrity.) Yes, dedicated materials are cheating. Blanket forts must be made with only blankets, chairs, tables, etc (we built ours in the living room). Bah. By my measure, half of our furniture items are "dedicated fort materials" to my kids. Can I get an amen for outdoor blanket forts? That would be the other large PRO for construction sets. Plastic or metal can go outside; most indoor furniture can't. Throw in a tunnel, old discarded slide you find on the street, etc., you've almost got FORT AWESOME (which is actually something else entirely.)

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:41:41 -0800

...plastic nuts and bolt things.... Oh, that reminds me! Bystander, try using zip ties! We used to use these when the kids were little. Zip ties and fridge/stove boxes--best forts evar!

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 11:33:58 -0800