I just had some random things to write tonight, so...here we go.
1. Settlers Of Catan (seen above) is easily my favorite board game ever. It's a great strategy game and each game takes long enough to get you involved, but it doesn't take three days. But my favorite aspect is that it's very much confrontational, hopefully in a good-spirited way. It's kind of like a cross between Risk and Monopoly, with the added mental/psychological twist of being able to trade resources and generally getting inside the heads of your opponents by jamming them in their attempts to build. If you're playing this game and you don't have people glaring at you by the time you get to five or six points, then you're probably not playing it right.
2. I don't remember where I saw this last -- actually, yes I do, but I don't want to admit that it was in a Hardy Boys book I was reading last night, and therefore feel the need to explain why I read books intended for 7-14 year olds -- but I find it interesting how food can often be used as a gift.
In the book, the Hardy brothers run the risk of seriously offending their mother by leaving to investigate a potential lead just when she had finished preparing dinner. She is quickly mollified when the boys come to their senses and stay for dinner before rushing off to tackle the next angle of their current mystery. I've seen this firsthand in not only our own culture, but especially in other cultures. My time living in Mexico included many a dinner offered to us on staff as a way of showing how much we were welcomed and appreciated there.
I always felt a little bad because I really don't like food as much as most people do. I mean, good food is good food, and when I'm hungry, pretty much anything is good food. But, contrary to the old proverb about the way to a man's heart, feeding me isn't necesarily the primary way to achieve my overall happiness.
And again, I feel bad about this because food is such a common gift, as it should be. It's a great way to spend time with other people, celebrate a momentous occasion, or to get people together who may not ordinarily have a reason to get together. Plus, food is typically cheaper than an actual gift, and it can be easily prepared in large quantities so as to involve as many people as possible.
But when food isn't in the top three things that make you happy, it's hard to get excited about another dinner invitation. I suppose this is part of the reason why places like bars and coffee shops exist; they allow for the consumption of something to go along with our interpersonal interactions. And both places offer some kind of mind-altering beverages, which, as I've heard so eloquently said about alcohol, can act as a "social lubricant" that help us shed some of our pesky inhibitions.
And I guess that's what it's all about: doing something that helps us take the focus off of the fact that we're all pretty bad at interacting with other human beings. If we all just gathered in a room and tried to have a party, things would be boring and awkward pretty fast. Throw in a bowl of chips and some salsa, and suddenly you're a karaoke machine away from a swinging shindig.
3. Speaking of board games, Milton Bradley (the baseball player, not the board game company -- had you going there for a second!) added another episode to his semi-annual segment on Sportscenter that profiles his meltdowns on the field. Apparently all he did this time was get ejected for vehemently arguing balls and strikes. But I especially appreciated that the folks at ESPN seemed to already have the edited video clips of his previous outburst ready to go at a moment's notice. It reminds me of the old SNL sketch featuring Dana Carvey as Tom Brokaw reading a series of news openers dealing with the death of Gerald Ford (as seen below).
I bet the Sportscenter anchors have a few stories they do this with:
"Brett Favre came out of retirement today and signed on to play midfielder for Eintracht Braunschweig in the German Futball Bundesliga."
"Tiger Woods won the Buick Invitational today by sinking a putt from the parking lot with a snow shovel on the 18th hole."
"San Diego Padres second baseman David Eckstein shocked fans today by openly admitting that he has used performance-enhancing drugs. Eckstein admitted that, although he never used steroids, he has been known to snort pixy stix in the dugout between innings to meet keep his blood sugar levels on par with those of a hummingbird."
"LeBron James has been traded to the New York Knicks for Nate Robinson, the Statue of Liberty, the female half of the cast of Friends and a sympathy card signed by every New Yorker apologizing for destroying the one and final hope that the city of Cleveland has for winning a major sports championship."
...and so on.
4. If you didn't watch the U.S. men's soccer team beat Spain in the semifinals of the FIFA Confederations Cup this week, you should definitely tune in on Sunday to see the final against Brazil. The Americans played really well against the top-ranked team in the world, scoring twice and shutting out the vastly superior talent on the Spanish side. The U.S. has a tough task against Brazil, which beat South Africa 1-0 in the other semifinal to make it to the title game, but if the Americans can hold down the back line like they did against the surging Spaniards, then they have a shot. Even if you don't like soccer, it's huge because this is the first time the U.S. has advanced to the final of a FIFA international competition...and if everybody else in the world thinks soccer is important, we should at least support our boys in their efforts to make us better than everyone else at one more thing.
That's it for now...I'll be back soon with more movie thoughts and we're going to have Steph's review of the David Cook show at the fair last week...stay tuned...
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