What is "horsengoggle"

Horsengoggle (also known as horse-and-goggle and horse 'n' goggle) is a method of selecting a random person from a group. Unlike some other methods, such as rock paper scissors, one of the features of horsengoggle is that there is always a winner: it is impossible to tie.

To use the system, all participants stand in a circle. An arbitrary member of the group is selected by the leader as a starting point. All participants simultaneously throw between zero and five fingers. The leader counts the total number of fingers thrown, then counts that many people around the circle. The selected person is the winner.

In his memoir of growing up in Missouri in the 1940s, Jim Frank mentions the game as "ein, zwei, drei, horsengoggle", which he describes as "an old German system of selection". Horsengoggle is used by a number of youth camps in the United States, and by some Girl Scout units.