Love and Other Games of Chance

Leslie invented a new game this past weekend. It’s called Costumed or Crazy? Here are the rules if you want to play along at home (though I guess you’ll have to wait until next year to join in). Over the Halloween weekend, you are to point out people and challenge your partner to guess whether that person is dressed in a costume or whether he simply prefers to wear strange clothing. It’s as basic as that.

After finishing our second marriage preparation course this past Saturday (which we must do in order to marry in the Catholic church), we relaxed with some Olive Garden soup, salad, and pizza. We spotted a gentleman dressed like this:

So… 50s greaser or high fashion?

Try this one:

Real hobo or drunken Freak Fest go-er?

Note: You may want to stay away from anyone who’s wearing an eye patch. No matter how much they look like a pirate, there’s a chance the patch is legit and covering up an empty eye socket. They might even show you the empty socket to prove it to you, which you do not want them to do.

Here’s another game, this one from a “special writers’-convention-only preview of Mathias Svalina’s forthcoming [though now I think it’s published] collection of children’s games, Play.” It’s billed as short prose, but I think his form could work equally well as prose poems:

ANIMAL CHASE
(for 5 or more players)

Two bases are marked off, at either end of America. Each child takes the name of an Animal. One child is It. He stands in the center of America & writers newspaper columns about the decline of America. He starts a radio show & becomes tremendously influencial. He begins to see himself as no longer It but the voice of the people. When he goes to sleep at night his mother tucks him in & whispers “Sweet dreams, voice of the people.” When his father drops him off at school he calls out “Have a great day, voice of the people.”

The Animals lurk in the darkness of the forest & the shadows of the demolished factories. When stray children pass the shadows they pounce on them. Licking the blood from their claws & beaks they whisper to themselves “I am Animal. I am Animal.”

When the first fame ends all the children trade names & a new child becomes It.

Anyone want to be the first one It? Anyone else have new games to share?