The Best Game I've Heard of in a Long Time

Gathered for a delightful evening with your family or friends, drinking mulled wine, or hot buttered rum, or eggnog, as the case may be--please--build community with the following game.

• Have everyone find a book in the house.  Let each person write out the first sentence of his book.
• Let everyone see the books.  Choose one book in particular.
• Have the person who chose that book put the correct first sentence into the pot.
• Then have everyone attempt to write the first sentence of that book--they might guess it, know it, or just mimic it.  Add those sentences to the pot.
• Shuffle.
• Pull out and read the sentences.
• Then have everyone vote for the sentence he thinks is the correct one (except for the person who chose the book who must abstain from voting).  1 point to each person whose sentence is voted for.  5 points to anyone who guesses the correct sentence.

This game recommends itself because it will call on the creative and intellectual powers of the whole group, yet it is not too difficult for anyone to participate.  Winning is not really the object so much as the delight of hearing the different sentences.  (The friend who told me about this said both Leisure, the Basis of Culture and a Golden Book about horsies made it into the selection-can you imagine!?) It will put you in touch with all kinds of great authors and try your skill at wit.  And wit can't be had without a serious and common education.  That's why P. G. Wodehouse and Chesterton are so funny--people get all their references and spoofs of poems and authors and common sayings, because they know all those poems and authors and common sayings.  You don't get a spoof of something you don't know about.

If you're with your youth group or students, play this game, but maybe drink spiced apple cider, with a big pomander sunk into the middle of the pot.  You know, one of those oranges studded with cloves.