2011年11月24日 星期四

Win, lose or draw — let the games begin!

In the world of games and puzzles, the sky’s the limit! National Game and Puzzle Week, which falls on the Sunday through Saturday of Thanksgiving week, is a great time to turn off the cellphones, put those iPads aside, pull those buds out of your ears and gather ‘round the game table.

I was born into a game-playing family, and I am happy to be surrounded by a passel of kids and grandkids that enjoy the hilarity (and drama!) that goes with hauling out the latest versions of our favorite games. For me, game time is always an enlightening and enriching experience. You get to learn a lot about a person when those cards come out and the dice get to rolling. Mostly, it’s good stuff — as long as we’re careful to make sure those ultra-competitive family members wind up on the same team!

While the “game” part of National Game and Puzzle Week isn’t limited to board games, those are mostly the kind we gravitate toward around here. Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history.

Not so different from a lot of today’s games, early games usually involved some kind of battle, always resulting in a winner and a loser. (It’s really hard to convince even the youngest game player to play for the “fun of it!”)

Most games are going to involve some combination of luck, strategy, diplomacy and skill. While a game like chess involves strategy and skill,

Candyland, as we all know, is pure luck of the spin. Luck is also going to be a factor in any dice game, though Trivial Pursuit allows a knowledgeable player to move ahead no matter the roll.

In a game like Monopoly, you’re always somewhat at the mercy of the roll of the dice, but eventually sound “business” decisions can make you a winner.

My youngest son wasn’t much into hotels or houses — he’d just secretly stash cash under a corner of the board (he called it his safety deposit box) and would pull it out when everybody else was property rich and cash poor. It was a strategy that served him well.

Personally, I’m not so hot at the strategy games. I don’t get Risk at all.This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their Floor tiles .

While I have an understanding of Stratego, I find it kind of boring. Unless, of course, my grandson Haydn is my opponent and the rules of the game change on a whim — his.

He routinely moves his flag,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . thinks the “bombs” should be thrown, and is convinced holding his “spy” in his hand gives him permission to come around the table and check out your men.

My favorites are charade, acting and drawing games like Guesstures, Cranium, and Pictionary. I like fast moving games like Mad Gab and Catchphrase. I love Trivial Pursuit, though I rarely win. No matter how hard I try, I can’t always land on “entertainment.”

Now Scrabble — I own it. It’s a rare day I can be beaten in Scrabble.A long established toolmaking and trade Injection moulds company. Of course, it’s a rare day I can get anyone interested in playing Scrabble!

As far as the “puzzle” part of the week goes, I know there are many, many kinds of puzzles out there. By definition, a puzzle is a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties requiring ingenuity and patient effort.

That would include anything from a Sudoku or Crossword to a Rubik’s Cube. But for me,which applies to the first offshore merchant account only, there is only one kind of puzzle — jigsaw.

I like to keep a big jigsaw puzzle out for anyone who wanders by and wants to sit a spell. As a family, we have shared some happy times and interesting conversations over a good thousand piece puzzle.

So, when my youngest son awoke one morning to excruciating back pain, I was quite convinced it was due to the hours he had spent hunched over our latest puzzle the day before. Turns out it was a kidney stone, which the doctor insisted wasn’t caused by hunching over a puzzle for hours on end. Who’s to say for sure?

Today’s games, though, for the gaggle of grandkids running about all high on candied yams and chocolate pie, will include: a treasure hunt complete with individualized pictures of items to be located (difficulty based on the age of the “hunter”); a new game that involves removing a partner’s socks quicker than he can remove yours; a semi-dangerous game where a blindfolded kid uses wooden spoons to “feel” and identify the mystery person in front of him; a “dance off” to holiday music; and my most inventive game to date,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, “Don’t Wake Grandma From Her Nap ‘til the Dishes Are Done.” I’ll give prizes.

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