Sandy Supposes....

Games to Giggle By

PROMPT March 15th

What’s your favorite board game or card game to play with friends?

         

         

         Family and friends alike enjoy playing a game known as 'What's Yours Like?' To participate, one person is 'it' and they will receive clues about a person, place, or thing, so, basically some sort of noun, from the other players. They will be describing their version of this object and attempting to stump the guesser with vague information. Often the various clues seem to have nothing in common and it becomes difficult to identify what everyone is sharing. The confusion of 'it' proves amusing and the players revel in their attempts to be clever.

         This game is not for the shy, or meek. To play along is to be boisterous, rowdy, and often bawdy.

         Paul becomes the first official 'it' of the evening and he turns to Emily and asks, "What's yours like?"

         She replies with a grin, "Tall."

         Unable to ascertain the object with this one word clue, Paul repeats his question to Sydney.

         "Prickly."

         Shaking his head, Paul asks Carrie, "What's yours like?"

         She laughs and answers, "Bushy."

         This continues with three more clues from the others present. Paul hears short, green and full. With no further edification, he shrugs and admits defeat. The laughs reveal he has been trying to identify a Christmas tree.

         Emily becomes the next 'it'. She begins by asking Paul, "What's yours like?"

         He simply stare at her and offers one simple word, "Full."

         The others have seen his and they agree. His are definitely full.

         Emily has no idea what it could be and so she again asks the leading question.

         "Mine are brown."

         "The school has lots of them."

         "If you saw mine you'd see they hold lots of snowmen."

         Emily flounders. "I dunno, boobs?"

         Her reaction is to scowl when the players hoot in disbelief.

         "Really Emily? Who here has brown boobs with snowmen sitting on them?"

         "Well then what is it, huh?"

         "We're talking about shelves, Emily, shelves."

         Sandy once was 'it' and received two tantalizing clues.

         "Okay. Mine is white."

         Danielle elaborated. "Mine is tear-able, but it's not terrible."

         Sandy guessed correctly with toilet paper.

          Poor Paul found himself 'it' with another puzzler. His random clues were deep, slippery, satisfying and hot. Once again, he could not make the connection, yet, of course, it made perfect sense when he discovered the object was a bathtub.

         Sometimes, this game slips into the gutter with suggestive offerings such as 'mine is always wet' and it is in reality an innocent toothbrush cast in the role of mystery object.

         Another game favourite is 'Pictionary'. The person who is 'it' must sketch a thing, an action, or perhaps a feeling chosen from the drawing of an inscribed card from a deck. Within the time constraints of a timer, 'it' endeavours to portray something with a pencil and a piece of paper. During one session, I didn't hesitate to recreate a car with a noticeable circle at the front end. To emphasize the circle, I drew radiating lines like those most of us make to represent the rays of the sun.

         Mentally, I screamed at the players, "See the beams? Look at the beams."

         Danielle, my youngest daughter, crowed, "It's a penis! Mom drew a penis."

         I pretended to me mortified and I joined in the laughter.

         Gasping for air, I shook my head and wheezed, "No, it's a headlight."

This only made us giggle anew. Okay, granted my hastily sketched vehicle resembled a sausage-mobile, but come on. Danielle insisted I'd drawn a spewing penis. To this day, my impromptu piece of art is front and center on Danielle's fridge labelled as the "penis car."

         Have you ever noticed that partners seem to develop an understanding over their myriad years together? Hubby and I played Pictionary with a group of likewise married couples. Terry and Joyce were a long-wed couple who never could see eye to eye. He drew a detailed, realistic desk phone and still his wife could not see it. As the sand trickled into the hourglass timer, she admitted to being stumped. The rest of us saw and identified a telephone. After failing to guess phone, Joyce tore apart her husband's sketch. She insisted it should've had a cord and she didn't believe the shape to be accurate.

         During our team effort, my partner had only drawn a single horizontal line when I blurted, "Silver mine. It's a silver mine."

         Incredibly, that was what he intended to sketch! Where had I seen a mine, let alone a silver mine in that one simple line? Did we experience a moment of telepathy? How bizarre! I still wonder just how he was going to draw silver. Maybe I'd have realized his linework represented a mine, but if he'd drawn a box under that line could I not have guessed elevator shaft? I'll never know for certain.