November
2007
By Douglas Kent,
Email: doug of
whiningkentpigs.com or diplomacyworld
of yahoo.com
On the web at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com – or
go directly to the Diplomacy section at http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/. Also be sure to visit the new Diplomacy
World website at http://www.diplomacyworld.net
All Eternal Sunshine readers are encouraged
to join the free Eternal Sunshine Yahoo group at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eternal_sunshine_diplomacy/
to stay up-to-date on any subzine news or errata.
Quote Of The Month – “Sometimes I don't think people realize how lonely it is to be a kid.” (Clementine in
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”)
Welcome
to the special pre-wedding issue of Eternal Sunshine. Actually, the only thing special about it is
I’m not going to write very much. Aside
from this opening section, and this month’s personal writing selection, all
you’re going to get are the games, letters, and movie reviews. So maybe you can consider this the Standard
U.S. Government Issue: half the material at twice the price. But considering I don’t charge for this rag,
that last part shouldn’t concern you all that much.
The
big news regarding the wedding is poor Heather and her history of being not
very graceful. That trend unfortunately
continued, as about two weeks before the big day she fell down while hanging
some Halloween decorations with her daughter, twisting her right ankle rather
severely. After icing it down for an
hour, she managed to driver herself home (usin the
left foot for the gas and brake). Then
the swelling and the pain really started in, full force. By the following morning it was clear she
wouldn’t be able to make it to work.
Instead, Heather spent the day with her ankle elevated, while I bought
some crutches and an ankle brace on the way home from work.
The
injury itself was a bit odd. Heather was
able to put some pressure on the foot, but suffered excruciating pain when
trying to move her foot from side to side.
Wiggling her toes was also painful, although over the course of the
following two days that subsided a bit.
She couldn’t drive, but with me as taxi service Heather was able to make
it through the next few days at work…although she did mention to me that she
never realized just how far the bathroom was from her desk until she had to use
crutches to get there!
That
weekend I took Heather to my old doctor, where they examined her and took a few
X-rays. There doesn’t seem to be any
break or fracture, although there could be a tiny chip somewhere. However, the severity of the sprain, and the
ligament damage, means it will probably be three months before she can walk on
the foot normally with zero pain. In the
meantime we can expect slow but gradual improvement.
When
she was first injured, while the wedding was never in jeopardy, the idea of a
honeymoon where we’d planned to do a lot of walking around seemed out of the
question. We actually considered
cancelling the honeymoon completely, and rescheduling it for the spring. But after a week, while she is still in pain,
I think we’ve decided there has been enough improvement to still go and enjoy
ourselves. Even if we can’t do
everything we wanted to, we can always return for an anniversary and make up
for the injury then.
The
only real change in wedding plans is Heather’s entrance. In the original wedding design, she was to
walk down a long flight of stairs into the ceremony. Now, with her ankle the way it is, I think we
will simply have her slowly walk in from the next room. When it comes time to take some extra photos,
maybe we can fake a few on the staircase.
That’s
about it from me this month. If we have
the photos back by next issue, I’ll probably stick one or two in here. Have a spooky Halloween, and I’ll see you in
November!
The Knife
There are very few people who know many of
the details of my relationship with my first wife Mara. Her own family
remains, I believe, happily oblivious to the extent of Mara's health problems,
both physical and mental. As for my family...for reasons that are not
entirely obvious to me, I never chose to confide in them very deeply; or to
anyone, for that matter. I felt it was something I had taken on as a
personal burden, a responsibility which I alone was supposed to deal
with. Besides, there wasn't much anybody could have done to help me,
aside from offering moral support. Most of the things Mara and I went
through we went through together, without outside interference (except for
doctors and psychiatrists, when necessary). On those rare occasions when
she attempted to derive some support from her own family, it inevitably
resulted in her being disappointed at what they were willing to offer. And
when I would reveal some details to my friends or family, I suspect they felt I
was dramatizing the situation for humorous effect...or else they simply had to
step away and pretend it wasn't happening, like when someone you know is dying
of a terminal illness, and you stop calling rather than deal with it. Or,
perhaps more accurately, when you try to convince yourself that shape crossing
the road wasn't a flying saucer or a ghost or a fairy or a goblin.
I've told many of the more dramatic stories since then, and they seem easier to
believe simply because when told one at a time, they can be dealt with on an
individual basis. When you try to sit down and look at the collective
summary, however, the situation begins to be harder to get your arms (or your
brain) around. While I was in prison, I sent three or four chapters of
what I called "The Mara Project" to Heather, where I attempted to
tell the entire story from when we met to the bitter end. I probably
finished close to a hundred handwritten pages - first in the form of a
narrative stage play with myself telling the history complete with my personal
commentary, and later simply as a written record of events. Yet when I
got to that point and stopped, I hadn't even reached our actual wedding in the chronology
of events. Maybe that's why I stopped there: because it was spiraling out
of control. Or maybe I needed to focus on other things. Or maybe I
just decided it wasn't very interesting; probably a combination of all three.
More
than those reasons, I think I stopped because the entire relationship is the
source of such deep guilt for me. I have been working on that, and making
progress...I'm able to see that just because something ends in disaster and
failure doesn't nullify the positive aspects. I'm also constantly
reminded that I am who I am now because of those experiences I've been through,
and while I choose to beat myself up for not turning the nightmare into a fairy
tale, others are more likely to look at it and find things within the stories
that point to a more redeeming picture of myself and my commitment to
happiness. Put bluntly, by a few people, I'm told most of the problems in
my later life, including my self-sabotage and eventual imprisonment, were
attempts on my part to punish myself for perceived wrongdoings and
failures. Or, in other words, if I couldn't save her, I don't deserve to
be saved myself.
Fortunately, I no longer believe that. And divulging some of the details
of the problems and the struggles and the surreal nightmares have helped me to
slowly let go of portions of that guilt. Not to mention, time does have a
slight healing quality to it...life keeps me too busy to constantly remind
myself what a screw-up I am.
When I started the Residential Drug and Alcohol Program in prison, one of the
things everyone had to do was step in front of the "community" (every
inmate enrolled in the program at that time, around 150 men, plus five or six
staff members) and make a commitment statement.
In essence, you were supposed to get up and there say "I knew I needed
help when...” following that with the moment you knew your life was out of
control, or the moment you reached rock bottom. Not surprisingly, most
inmates went up to the front of the group and bullshitted their way through.
The most common statement was something like "I knew I needed help when I
had to say goodbye to my children before I was sent to prison."
Maybe for some it was the truth, but it was also a safe and inconspicuous way
to get through the exercise without revealing anything truly personal.
As usual, I decided to be different, and I searched my mind for the lowest
moment I could find. Not necessarily the one where I left lowest
personally, but the one which to an outsider would illustrate the pathetic state
of my life...the moment when the periods of happiness or peacefulness had been
overwhelmed by the bad times.
What
I came up with was a specific evening when Mara and I lived in Dallas. I
believe this was early 1996; for some reason in my mind I always see this
evening as when we lived in Rahway, New Jersey, but in truth I believe it was
later, after we had moved to Texas. Mara's Crohn's disease was still a
problem, although she had experienced short periods of improvement. Her
mental state, meanwhile, had begun to fray considerably. When we'd moved
to Dallas she had hoped a new group of doctors and psychiatrists would be able
to get her problems under control, but as usual she'd expected too much and was
very unhappy with the way things were going. She complained of missing
her family in one moment, and the next hoping she would never speak to or see
them again. And Mara's weight continued to be a major problem. When
we went out of the house we had to bring her wheelchair, because between her back
and her weight she could not comfortably walk more than ten feet on a good
day. In effect, she was tired of living, and tired of hoping for the
relief that never came. Every step forward was somehow followed by two
steps back. Aside from work, I spent every moment, waking or sleeping, by
Mara's side. But nothing I did could ease her misery.
One of my brothers had owned a Bowie knife years
earlier, and sometime when I was a teenager he had given it to me. I
never had any use for it, but we kept it in a bedside drawer as a form of
protection. We didn't have any guns; not even I was crazy enough to
keep guns around Mara. There was no telling who she might use them on,
including herself.
This particular evening we were lying in bed, watching television. As a
general rule at this stage, I would fall asleep hours before Mara would.
She'd stay up until 2am or later watching television, unable to sleep, and
instead would sleep until 10am or later in the morning, waking up only for a
moment beforehand to take the handful of pills I'd give her before leaving for
work. I would call her when I got there, to let her know I'd arrived
safely, as she liked me to do. Often she wouldn't remember me doing that,
and an hour later would call in a panic wondering if I'd been killed in an
accident.
Mara had been strangely quiet all evening, neither laughing at the TV nor
complaining of any discomfort. I rolled over, gave her a kiss goodnight,
and started to settle in. At that point, Mara reached back and opened her
bedside drawer, pulling out the Bowie knife and showing it to me.
"Tonight, when you are sleeping," she said with a serious but dull
tone, "I am going to stab you to death."
"Okay," I replied calmly. "And why would you want to do
that? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, but I'm tired of living. And if I kill you, I won't have a
reason to live anymore. So then I will be free to kill myself. So
that's what I am going to do. I'm sorry, but I just can't take it
anymore."
I could actually see the warped logic of what she was telling me. But I
didn't know what to do, or what to say. Life had been dragging us both
down, and for a long time I'd had no hope of things getting any better.
At any rate, I was tired too, both literally and figuratively. And I felt
completely helpless in my life.
I didn't turn around. I didn't want to look at her. I just put my
head down on the pillow, said "I love you," and closed my eyes.
In less than ten minutes I was asleep.
The next morning my alarm went off around 5am, as usual. Mara was still
awake, sitting up, holding the knife. Her eyes were bloodshot and red,
and I could see she had been crying on and off.
"I couldn't do it," she said quietly. "You looked so
peaceful and innocent, I couldn't kill you." I gathered her morning
pills, which she swallowed with some water before rolling on her side to pet
one of the cats and put on her CPAP mask, which she had to wear when sleeping
to treat her sleep apnea. As I walked to the bathroom to take a shower
and get ready for work, she looked up at me.
"I hate you, you bastard. Why can't you just let me die?"
And she put her mask on, turned on the machine, and went to sleep.
Years later, when I stood in front of those 150 inmates, I knew perfectly well
what I needed to say. To the confused glances of the room full of faces,
I walked to the microphone and announced: "I knew I needed help when my
wife told me she was going to stab me to death in my sleep, but I had grown to
miserable and tired of living that instead of doing anything about it, I just
rolled over and closed my eyes."
I don't think anybody understood what the hell I was talking about, but if
nothing else, it got a reaction.
Across the Universe – Heather has been wanting to see Across the Universe since we first saw the trailer over
two months ago. From that, it appeared the film was a semi-psychedelic
love story, set to a backdrop of Beatles music. I have been a lifelong
Beatles fan, going back to my earliest childhood memories, and as a rule I have
nothing against musicals or love stories. (Those of you who have seen my
100 Movie list may remember Moulin Rouge is
included there, as are Yellow Submarine, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). So at first I was intrigued by the
possibilities this movie possessed.
Then I started reading some of the reviews. Even six weeks before the
film debut, Julie Taymor's movie was receiving
troubling notices within Hollywood circles.
Too expensive, too long, no story, no cohesion...a
spectacular failure. Those opinions were not universal, but they
appeared to be the consensus. Still, Heather wanted to see it, and I was
willing to give it a chance. We didn't make it there last weekend, but
finally tonight we sat down behind an idiot who wouldn't turn his cell phone
off and got ready to experience what could be a wonderful film.
It wasn't. Across the Universe is a
terrible movie. Avoid it at all costs. We couldn't even stay for
the whole thing. 90 minutes, in we gathered our belongings and
left. We had to give up before we started to bleed internally.
I'm not going to waste too much time describing the story. Jude (Jim Sturgess) travels from Liverpool
to the U.S. to find his father, who he has never met. While there, he meets
Max, and through him he finds Lucy, Max's sister...as well as a multitude of
other characters, including Sadie, Jo-Jo, Prudence (who climbs in through a
bathroom window), Dr. Robert, Mr. Kite...you get the idea.
At every possible moment Beatles songs (courtesy of the publishing rights
currently owned by Sony, by way of Michael Jackson) are
inserted into the story. Usually they are forced, such as when friends
sing "Dear Prudence" to coax her out of a closet...or "All My
Loving" when Jude says goodbye to his girlfriend in Liverpool. The only time the music isn't a
distraction is when it isn't shoved down your throat: a rendition of "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" is enjoyable, as is a
few seconds of "Come Together" by Joe Cocker
as both a homeless nut and a pimp - but even that grows tiresome quickly.
If you've ever seen the nightmarishly-bad film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band, starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, you have something to compare this movie
to. Every Beatles reference imaginable is
included, with no rhyme or reason. After 90 minutes I cared absolutely
nothing about a single character in the movie, and if they had all been
suddenly killed by - I don't, know, let's say The
Terminator - I would have been applauding the entire time. Good
riddance to bad rubbish.
Julie Taymor's attempts at psychedelic experiences
are awful and hackneyed. Her banal method of reducing the 60's to
stereotypes smacks of a 1970's B-movie written over a weekend. Every song
is taken at its most literal meaning, instead of the multiple layers the Beatles used within their later lyrics.
Overall, the movie has zero to offer - not a single redeeming factor. Aside from rolling our eyes, or cringing
(even at the terrible choreography), Heather spend the movie quietly saying
“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry.”
Fortunately, being such a failure, the images in the film are not creative or
meaningful enough to ruin the Beatles for the
poor viewers. On the way home, Heather and I popped in a Beatles CD and
sang along, doing what we could do erase Across the
Universe from our memories. If you simply skip this movie
altogether, you won't have to do the same.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - After recently watching Elizabeth on DVD, we have been
anticipating the release of the sequel since we saw the trailer months ago.
Reprising their roles, Cate Blanchett stars as Elizabeth
I, with Geoffrey Rush playing her trusted adviser
Sir Francis Walsingham. Building off of the
theme near the end of the first film, in many ways the political intrigues and
impending war with Spain - culminating with the
defeat of the Spanish Armada - are simply a backdrop for the main thrust of the
film: Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen," and how as Queen she has given
up any ability to be a normal woman, or to be treated as one.
Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen)
is her male counterpart in this film. He is adventurous, outspoken, and
brave, but also honest and chivalrous (he is introduced putting a coat over a
puddle for the Queen). Clearly he reminds the lonely Queen of Lord Robert
(or at least his good points), the man whom she loved and was betrayed by in
the first film.
Instead, Raleigh becomes involved with one of the Queen's Ladies-in-Waiting (Abbie Cornish as Bess). And meanwhile the imprisoned
Mary Queen of Scots plots with King Phillip II of Spain
to wage Holy War against the "bastard pretender". The intrigues
seem less interesting this time around, and Walsingham
isn't given as much screen time in his role as the master of deceit, spies, and
dirty tricks as he was in the first film. Perhaps that was by design, as
he is aging rapidly and referred to numerous times as an "old man."
It's difficult to build much suspense about the arrival of the Spanish Armada,
since any schoolchild knows it was the greatest defeat in Spanish naval
history. But the battle with Spain is
really added scenery. Blanchett gives another
stirring performance as a woman unlike any other, but who is denied those
things a normal woman is permitted: love, happiness, and as Raleigh tells her,
being liked for who you are instead of what you can do for someone. It is
a thorny crown Elizabeth wears, and her pride can be hurt when Bess is able to
aspire to dreams Elizabeth has been forced to give up in her duty as Queen.
Overall, I preferred the first film, but that doesn't mean this one isn't worth
seeing. I still give it a B+ and suggest you skip the typical
hype-of-the-week and instead learn more about one of the most admirable women
in history.
Seen
on DVD
– INLAND Empire (Incomplete, I just
couldn’t concentrate enough on the movie to enjoy it, so I returned it to
Netflix. I intend to put it in our list
to watch again at a later date); Halloween
(C+, this was the original John Carpenter film which we rented for nostalgic sake. It was cornier than I remembered, and didn’t
hold quite the fright I hoped); My First
Mister (B, quirky and sweet – Albert Brooks reminds me as a cross between
his typical character and my father); Looking
For Comedy in the Muslim World (B+, typical Albert
Brooks, very funny, some true laugh-out-loud moments).
Tom Swider: Just perusing some back issues of ES and saw your
movie list. I forgot you were quite a movie buff. Something I miss about
Philadelphia is the easy access to art house films. It's been a pretty dry year
as far as I'm concerned. Last movie I saw was "King of Kong" ... it
was enjoyable even though I normally don't go for documentaries.
We considered going to see that in late September,
but it was showing at two very distant theatres so we skipped it after all.
Harrisburg just sucks on the whole. I like my job
and it beats being unemployed, but there's not too much culture here. We've got
Midtown Cinema, which is more of a viewing room than a movie theatre. Got to see Cronenberg's "A History
of Violence" last summer. Did you see his new film yet (Eastern
Promises)? From what I've read about it, I think I'd be disappointed and would
compare it less favorable to "A History of Violence."
Haven’t seen Eastern Promises. Almost did, but Heather seemed a little less
than interested.
So on some weekends I may venture to Baltimore to
see movies at The Charles or back to Philly. I made the trek to The Charles to
see Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE, and was thoroughly confused. It seemed like it had a
lot in common with Mulholland Drive (a movie I can watch every month), but went
much further in distorting reality, acting, fantasy, and dream. Also related to
MD playing at The Charles was "Persona", part of a month long Igmar Bergman festival.
By coincidence, our DVD copy of INLAND Empire
arrived in the mail an hour before I got your letter. But I couldn’t take the time to watch it
properly, so I returned it to Netflix and put it at the bottom of our queue. I’m looking forward to it…although I’m not expecting
to understand it!
Hope you enjoy going through the Twin Peaks DVDs
with Heather. It goes without saying that I'm a semi-fan, though I try to
maintain a low profile about it (Brad and Jack will get on my case). I did get
to Twin Peaks Fest X, and was amazed at how much fan support there is for the
series. If you come across them, you might look into getting copies of the
fanzine "Wrapped In Plastic." There was a
lot of good writing from a literary perspective. For example, one compared
"Lost Highway" with Shakespeare's "Othello." Another took a
constructive look at "Mulholland Drive", examining HOW things
happened instead of what things were supposed to mean, and the narrative forms
it took at various points in the film and why those decisions were made.
I seem to recall Heather telling me that she went to
one of the Twin Peaks Fests years ago, and was amazed at how many people
attended and how devoted they were.
We’re actually watching it on VHS, because Heather already owns the set
(although now I see you can buy both seasons on DVD too). Just want to finish Season 2 of The X-Files
first.
Back on your list: 12 Monkeys - Lots of good things
about it. Warped timeline. Filmed in
Philadelphia. Terry Gilliam style of wit. Brad Pitt's butt.
Obviously a show like Dr. Who
has covered the idea of time travel in more detail, and with more regard for
the paradoxes involved, but I will always love the flashback scenes of the
airport. I also will never forget how
when Mara and I went to see this in the theatre, about fifteen minutes in she
leaned over and whispered “Okay, you can tell me what the hell is going on
now.”
Clockwork Orange - Decent, but I'd give Kubrik's nod to "Eyes Wide Shut".
Maybe it is a combination of my fascination with
behavioral studies at the time when I first saw it, plus the soundtrack. And of course Malcolm McDowell is wonderful.
Chinatown and Maltese Falcon - Agreed. Very good film
noir. Learned during a trip to LA that the real water baron was William
Mulholland (of the real Mulholland Drive).You might also like Polanski's "Repulsion."
I still can’t believe I am getting married to the
great niece of Hal and Martha Wallis…
Dune - Gotta love "Dippity Dune Dog" (the dog Patrick Stewart holds onto
while charging into battle....)
I would have liked to see whatever Lynch’s true
vision for this film would have been.
But that will never happen. I
understand Dune was the film which made him decide he would rather make no more
movies than make one where he had to sacrifice control.
Glengarry Glen Ross - Diplomacy players will like
this one, as you get steak knives for coming in second place.
Put the coffee down!
Coffee is for closers.
Trainspotting - Great story and soundtrack!!
For me, I still enjoy Shallow Grave slightly more, but
only because it is so quiet at moments (and because it doesn’t remind me of my
prior drug use).
I've found your writing about your prison
experiences to be interesting, and I hope you continue sharing. Writing is
supposed to be good therapy. I go in cycles in trying to maintain a diary as a
way of obtaining insight through the writing process or in later review, but
something in life always presents an interruption to that habit. These days, I
just try to enjoy myself in my present situation and temper my plans to what I
think I can realistically do.
I really want to get more writing done regarding my
childhood and my first marriage. The
simple piece The Knife in this issue is an attempt at what I mean, but
sometimes the scars invokved (and the abundance of
material, ironically) stalls me out.
Good to see Andy York's still kicking around. I met
him once while I was working in San Antonio. Made my way up
to Austin a few times, once to play Viceroys at Dragon's Lair. If you
can't find a con, DL has some fairly regular gaming. I also think that BoardgameGeek has their con in Dallas.
Andy is a good egg.
He is also one of the only two hobby members to ever have met the
elusive Mara in the flesh…and one of only four people on the planet that had
the pleasure of my late cat Whisper to jump in their lap and purr (besides Mara
and myself)…Whisper hated (or feared, more accurately) almost everybody, but she
had no problems with Andy whatsoever.
Andy York: Enjoyed the story in the latest ES about your experiences "in
the northeast". It certainly is a different culture and environment than what
most of us are used to. I look forward to the next installment.
I enjoy writing them…but I don’t suggest anybody try
living them! At least I wasn’t in a
maximum security facility where bodily harm from other inmates was a constant
danger. Meanwhile, I’m beginning to
write more about Mara and our marriage, but that seems to have a lingering
depressant effect after each installment.
Nope, the Mensa Diplomacy SIG closed somewhere
around 2000, as I recall. The last Mensan who
actively GM'd folded his zine and no one else stepped
up to run games.
Does Mensa still have a newsletter or magazine?
Movie-wise in the past month, definitely see
"In the Shadow of the Moon" - excellent documentary with the
astronauts providing the commentary. There is no filter, no independent
commentary, just their words and deeds. They also addressed the tragedy of
Apollo 1 in a fitting manner.
"3:10 to Yuma" is another must see. I
didn't care too much for "Death at a Funeral", though it had some
good bits. "white light/black rain" was
sobering, with an interesting contrast between the personal response by the
survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. "Wildfire' (IMAX) can easily be
skipped.
So few movies seem to really
grab me lately. I used to love the big-budget films twenty
years ago, the Lethal Weapon goofy movies and the original Die
Hard, things like that. But now they all
leave me bored.
Dane Maslen: I too have a 'complete' Twin Peaks set. Alas it's merely a complete set of the series
and does not include the pilot (i.e. the initial extra-long episode). I once tried ordering the pilot through a
local shop, but they failed to obtain it.
Watch eBay, you can get tons of Twin Peaks
merchandise there.
I tend to like farces. Many years ago I saw Michael Frayn's "Noises Off" which, even nearly 30 years
on, is still the funniest play I have ever seen (and I've subsequently seen it
twice more at the theatre and at least twice on TV in its film version - not as
funny, but still fairly good). Last
weekend I went to see another Michael Frayn play,
"Donkey's Years". I thought I
might be somewhat disappointed as my expectations were very high based on
"Noises Off". Inevitably
"Donkey's Years" turned out to be not as funny as "Noises
Off"...but it was probably still the second funniest play I have ever
seen. There were a couple of minutes in
the second half when I could hear none of the dialogue (the audience were
laughing too much) and could only vaguely see what was going on on stage (my eyes were streaming with tears of laughter).
When a farce works, and you laugh like that, it is
one of the most rewarding and purely enjoyable experiences you can ever
have. When it doesn’t
work: fingernails on a chalkboard, my friend. Ouch.
Diplomacy (Black Press): Graham Wilson, Brad
Wilson, Chris Babcock, Melinda Holley, Alexander Levinson, needs just two more. Getting close, who wants to join in the fun?
Balkan Wars VI (Black Press): Signed up: Jack
McHugh, Graham Wilson, Brad Wilson, Brendan Whyte, needs three more. Rules and map on request, or you can find
them online within Paul Bolduc’s Boris
the Spider site at: http://members.aol.com/prbolduc/boris/hrules/BW6.html
By
Popular Demand
Credit goes to Ryk Downes, I believe, for
inventing this game (although his original version had the GM supply the
starting letter as well). The goal is to
pick something that fits the category and will be the "most popular"
answer. You score points based on the number of entries that match yours. For
example, if the category is "Cats" and the responses were 7 for
Persian, 3 for Calico and 1 for Siamese, everyone who said Persian would get 7
points, Calico 3 and the lone Siamese would score 1 point. The cumulative total
over 10 rounds will determine the overall winner. Anyone may enter at any
point, starting with an equivalent point total of the lowest cumulative score
from the previous round. If a person misses a round, they'll receive the
minimum score from the round added to their cumulative total. And, if you want
to submit some commentary with your answers, feel free to. The game will consist of 10 rounds. A prize will be awarded to the winner.
