Comments on: Weekend trivia

By: Jonathan Edelstein

Jonathan Edelstein — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 05:52:38 +0000

Hammer DeRoburt and Hammer brand knives. (It didn’t say last names. It didn’t say U.S. presidents. And no, I didn’t do any web searches.)

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 04:33:26 +0000

And Lincoln Logs, of course.

By: David Salmanson

David Salmanson — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 02:23:09 +0000

An earlier version of the boxed game was called Facts in Five. I played a version you didn’t buy even before that.

By: Rana

Rana — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 23:05:48 +0000

Oh yes. Fictionary is a classic one—I forget what the stupid card-and-board version is called, but it completely misses the point (and the sheer fun of searching the dictionary for a good stumper).

By: eszter

eszter — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:07:10 +0000

Mrs. Tilton – No, I’ll be telling you that Coke has taken ordinary water, stuck it in a bottle without anything additional, and is selling it for more than the stuff with the magic syrup. Yeah, I’ve been amazed at the number of do-it-yourself paper-pencil games that show up on store shelves in this country.

By: jp

jp — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:34:50 +0000

Since scattegories is really all about fighting, the underdetermination of the rules makes good sense. When friends and I play, we usually leave the rules as vague as possible at the outset in order to maximize yelling in the course of the game.

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:15:16 +0000

The Hoover factory is indeed fantastic, but it’s not on the North Circular – it’s on the Western Avenue, a bit east of Greenford. And it’s now a Tesco’s.

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 09:05:03 +0000

Eszter, yes, that’s it exactly; Stadt, Land, Fluss is clearly the German for Ország, város. Nothing more than a piece of paper and a pencil and a frantic race down alphabetised mental lists. But you’re not implying that this ‘Scattegories’ is something that uses a board and cards and that one buys in a box, I hope? Next you’ll be telling me that Coke has taken ordinary tap water, stuck it in a bottle with an exotic name on it and flogged it off to foolish yuppies at an obscene mark-up!

By: Jo Wolff

Jo Wolff — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 08:12:40 +0000

Just to underline Keef’s comment about Curb Your Enthusiasm. A month ago, like many in the UK without cable, I had never heard of this. But I was given the DVD and I would now have to rate it in the superleague of US comedies. It is in some respects rather like a cynical LA version of Voltaire’s Candide, by and starring Larry David, a, or the, writer of Seinfeld. This allows me to introduce my Seinfeld theory, which I first tried out about five years ago to universal disdain. Could it be that the characters are – implicitly or otherwise – based on Disney favourites? Jerry is Mickey Mouse, Elaine Minnie, George Donald Duck and Kramer Goofy?

By: Thlayli

Thlayli — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 03:49:35 +0000

“Ford” is an obvious one. “Johnson & Johnson”—it’s a brand name, and two presidents! ;) “Carter” is a children’s clothing manufacturer. If you’re not fussy about spelling, there’s “Busch”, a crappy-even-by-American-standards beer.

By: bunny

bunny — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 03:26:53 +0000

Before I got to the point where you restricted it to the letter H I had come up with Ford. And of course cars remind you of Lincoln.

By: Another Damned Medievalist

Another Damned Medievalist — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 03:07:46 +0000

Hmmm … Vice President or Vacuum Cleaner? Sounds like you were watching Win Ben Stein’s Money

By: Matt McGrattan

Matt McGrattan — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 00:55:03 +0000

The Hoover building is fantastic. This guy here has some photos.

By: Ken Hirsch

Ken Hirsch — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:19:39 +0000

There was a game show on cable that I only saw once (I don’t even remember the name), but it had a really great category of questions this show: Vice President or Vacuum Cleaner. They would toss out a name and you had to say whether it was the name of a Vice President or a vacuum cleaner brand. Obviously inspired by Hoover, but that wasn’t one of the questions.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 18:18:46 +0000

Hoover answer took me about half a second – no doubt because I used to have a thing for Art Deco, hence had a thing for the Hoover factory on the North Circular Road. I mention it because associations are sort of innaresting. That game must bump into associations all the time.