THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610160056
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KENNAN NEWBOLD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 98 lines
I HADN'T NOTICED the generation gap among my friends and family until I began paying attention to the games they play. Not the traditional games like tic-tac-toe or Monopoly that anyone can play, but games that certain ages play among themselves.
For instance, I was watching TV at my parents' house during one of my little sister's many slumber parties when deafening pre-teen laughter drew me to the living room and into a game of Want to Buy a Duck?
I've never been so confused in all my life.
It went something like this:
Meghan: ``Come on, Kennan. It's easy. We'll play and then you can join in. I'll start. (To the girl on her left): Want to buy a duck?
Cortney: A what? (This is an actual line in the game.)
Meghan: A duck.
Cortney: Does it quack? (This is the mandatory follow-up question.)
Meghan: Of course it quacks. (It must always quack.)
Cortney: OK, I'll buy it. (To the girl on her left): Want to buy a couch?
Beth to Cortney: A what? (This is where it get confusing, so try to follow along.)
Cortney to Meghan: A what?
Meghan to Cortney: A duck.
Cortney to Beth: A couch.
Beth to Cortney: Is it purple with blue stripes?
Cortney to Meghan: Does it quack?
Meghan to Cortney: Of course it quacks.
Cortney to Beth: Of course it's purple with blue stripes.
Beth: OK, I'll buy it. (To the girl on her left): Do you want to buy a . .
And so it goes, questions and answers back and forth around the circle until everyone is so dizzy they forget what they're supposed to say and quit. I played a few rounds and then retreated to the television.
I spent the next night around people my own age - college friends who couldn't decide whether to go to the bars now or after ``Seinfeld'' was over. We'd almost made a decision when someone suggested we stay home and play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
The rules are simple: Someone names a living actor or actresses and the group tries to link him or her with Kevin Bacon based on movies the two have been in.
The session went like this:
Dave: Connect Kevin Bacon with Nicole Kidman.
Julie: That's easy. Nicole was in ``Days of Thunder'' with Tom Cruise who was in ``A Few Good Men'' with Kevin Bacon.
(She's played before.)
Jimmy: OK, what about Bette Midler?
Julie: She was in ``Hocus Pocus'' with Sarah Jessica Parker who was in ``Footloose'' with Kevin Bacon.
Jimmy: Geez, Julie. Give someone else a try.
Julie: OK. Here's an easy one: Joe Pesci.
(Long pause)
Colin: Joe was in ``Casino'' with Sharon Stone who was in ``He Said, She Said'' with Kevin Bacon.
Jimmy: What's ``He Said, She Said''?
Colin: Never mind. Someone try Martin Short.
Dave: The only movie I remember him in was ``Three Amigos.''
Julie: Yeah, with Steve Martin who was in ``Leap of Faith'' with Debra Winger who was in ``Terms of Endearment'' with John Lithgow who was in ``Footloose'' with Kevin Bacon. This is too easy.
Jimmy: What about Bruce Lee?
(Long pause)
Dave: Forget that one. Try Dolly Parton.
Colin: She's not an actress.
Julie: Yes she is. She was in ``Steel Magnolias.''
Jimmy: Yeah, with Darryl Hannah who was in ``Splash'' with Tom Hanks who was in ``Apollo 13'' with Kevin Bacon!
Julie: You also could have gone from ``Steel Magnolias'' to Julia Roberts who was in ``Flatliners'' with Kevin Bacon.
The game is neverending. We played for at least two hours and discovered that Kevin Bacon is the hub of Hollywood. Hundreds of movies can be traced back to him.
The trick is to do it in six movies or less, hence the name. I highly recommend the game, with the warning that it's addicting.
My dad would hate it. He enjoys less social, more intellectual games like Balderdash - a board game that requires either a keen vocabulary or a knack for lying.
The object is to fool your opponents into believing that your definition of a word is the real definition. It's harder than it sounds.
Case in point:
Dad: OK, the first word is kantharos.
Me: Kanthawhat?
Dad: Kantharos. Just write down your definition and give it to me.
(After everyone's definition has been collected and mixed in with the real definition, the moderator reads them aloud.)
Dad: Kantharos - 1) A star in the Orion constellation; 2) A dilemma; 3) The study of Kant. . .
Everyone then votes on which one they believe is the real definition. If someone guesses your definition, more points to you.
After a while, we started getting sloppy. I started writing things like Pegomancy: The fear of wooden-legged sailors and Aglet: An infant born of two Texas A&M graduates.
It's too bad my little sister wasn't there to play.
She was deeply immersed in a game of Want to Buy a Duck? by CNB