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Games People Play

Steven L. Taylor
19

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So as to amuse myself in the time of coronavirus (and because I have been the Open Forum guy for the most part since Doug went dormant and was running out of ways to say “open forum”) I started a secret theme contest with the March 30 open forum. The subtitle for 3/30-4/4 was a specific theme, as was 4/6-4/10 (those two were related). On 4/11 all the subtitles were linked to Sting/Police songs, as was more or less guessed in today’s open forum.

Starting tomorrow, a new theme until someone correctly guesses (then on to a new one).

You should be able to see all the open forum post by clicking here if you want to decipher the previous themes.

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19 responses to “Games People Play”

  1. OnTheOtherHand Avatar
    OnTheOtherHand

    Tara Reade?

  2. inhumans99 Avatar
    inhumans99

    At first I thought this was a post literally asking about the games people play while the SIP orders are in place. I was all like…cool, Steven is into some mobile games just like me.

    That is not what this post is about…lol.

    Happy Friday folks.

    1
  3. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    You should be able to see all the open forum post by clicking here if you want to decipher the previous themes.

    when I click on your link the most recent Open Forum I see is January 4 2020.

    1
  4. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Are you old enough to be a Joe South fan?

  5. Jax Avatar
    Jax

    I’m just grateful you put the day of the week on every Open Forum. With school out, it’s pretty much how I keep track of what freakin day it is. Was Easter really just last weekend?! Feels like 10 years ago! 😉

    3
  6. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    @Jax:..Was Easter really just last weekend?! Feels like 10 years ago!

    Actually it’s been a bit longer than that:

    Revelation 22:7. Behold, I come quickly . . .

    And with that assurance— still unfulfilled nearly two thousand years
    later— the New Testament ends.
    Azimov’s Guide to the Bible

    2
  7. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Mister Bluster:

    when I click on your link the most recent Open Forum I see is January 4 2020.

    Have you tried clearing your cache?

  8. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    “Games People Play” is a song by The Alan Parsons Project (whatever the hell that means), on the album (remember albums?) titled “The Turn of a Friendly Card.”

    1
  9. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    Steven:
    I play those games sometimes. I wrote a book that involved a racist cult whose members were all based on Hitler’s inner circle. Granted the clues were obscure. And how many people got it out of the half million or so who read it? That would be zero.

    Does no one know that ‘Lance’ in German can be Speer?

    In another book I blow up a fair bit of Las Vegas, but the worst damage – an annihilating fire – occurs in a Vegas hotel that a) has no casino, b) is gold and c) just happens to be located (I was very specific with my map directions) right where the Trump hotel is. Number of people who got that? Zero.

    I could go on. Cute names, cute dates, cute locations, all just to amuse myself, and no one, no one ever, gets it.

    Yes, most of my readers are 14, but a surprisingly large number are grown-ups.

    Pearls before swine, dude.

    5
  10. Kingdaddy Avatar
    Kingdaddy

    Speaking of games, SIP has made it possible to reconnect easily with all my gaming comrades. I played a D&D-ish game last weekend with friends from Southern California with whom I played RPGs every week, back in the 80s and 90s. A couple of days ago, I played a board game online with friends from Northern California who were also members of a weekly game group. Last night, I played a computer wargame with a high school friend, us against the Nazis. Kind of a weird bonanza, gaming-wise.

    2
  11. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Kathy: Ding ding ding! I guess that means a new theme for Saturday.

  12. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    @Steven L. Taylor:..clearing your cache…

    I’ll see if I can figure out how to do that.

  13. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    A long time ago I hung around some person who was obsessed with The Alan Parsons.

    Too bad you can’t reference Vangelis.

  14. Just nutha ignint cracker Avatar
    Just nutha ignint cracker

    @Michael Reynolds: It might not be pearls before swine as much as it is overwhelming and very passionate ambivalence to Easter egg-type stuff. (Which I mostly don’t catch them in movies, either. On the other hand, my goal in watching movies/TV is 30-120 minutes of as close to zero brain activity as possible, so somehow, I’m not surprised.)

    2
  15. Kingdaddy Avatar
    Kingdaddy

    My favorite Alan Parsons selection is the Fall of the House of Usher section from Tales Of Mystery and Imagination.

  16. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    There’s this guy at work who’s a fan of superhero comics (he reads them). He’s a big fan of Stan Lee as well. He’s watched all the Marvel and DC movies, also Watchmen.

    He never noticed, until I told him, Mr. Lee had done cameos in many Marvel movies.

    And, well, there’s this Trek novel, Imzadi, by Peter David, about Riker and Troi in Betazed long before either served on the Enterprise. At one point there’s an alien attack, and some of the bad guys are named after components of the Passover Seder, namely Maror, Baytzah, Zroah, Charoset, etc.

    I didn’t notice that until someone in an online forum mentioned it.

  17. DrDaveT Avatar
    DrDaveT

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: Since the developers of Microsoft Office 97 won the Easter Egg wars for all time, I pay less attention to these things as well.

  18. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    The game be damned:

    Put The Message In The Box

    Would be a cool tag-line. And applicable.

    Shout out to wr.

  19. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    We literally type our comments into a box.

    Plus, World Party!

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