SUGGESTIONS FOR AFTER-DINNER GAMES

Since I've joined A2K I play 20 questions with my family whenever we go out for dinner and are waiting on our meal. It works perfectly. We do objects. "street signs" is one that stumped my husband. :-) "baby crib" almost stumped me.

Naked drunken Twister (TM)?

So, Onyx when are you going to start that object game?

Cav, I have to say that while the over 40s would do naked drunken Twister with glee and relish, the 14-25 year-olds would DIE! I'll suggest it though.

Here's a good diversion (not exactly a game) that usually gets every one in hysterics.

Tie a tablespoon in the middle of a long piece of thin thread or cotton and wind the two ends round the index finger of each hand. Insert the fingers in the ears with the spoon dangling freely in front and swing the head so the spoon strikes a hard object. Try it !

fealola - tonight, when i get home and after I do clary's christmas avatar :-)

I've always enjoyed the physics game "Just how big must a room be in order to swing a cat without hitting anything." The kids love it...

I'm also fond of "Name that dipthong." Sadly, I'm not the young 'uns will like that.

I don't understand that.... what am I missing here? Unfortunately, much as I enjoy swinging cats, the 14 yr old owns the only cat in the Christmas party, a mangy old black thing that looks well over 14 itself. So I probably won't be able to.

Do you do card games too? My family plays "Skip-Bo" . It's sort of a standard at family gatherings. There is always a table to two going all hours of the day. It's easy enough for the kids to play and still enough fun for adults.

"Not enough room to swing a cat"

Meaning: a confined space

Origin: Many people incorrectly think that this is a reference to the old Navel punishment of the 'cat of nine tails', however the phrase has been found in use long before that punishment was ever metered out by the Navy. In fact the phrase refers to the practice of putting a cat in a sack then suspending the sack from a tree, swinging the sack and then using it for archery practice.

Example: This room is too small, there's not enough room to swing a cat.

Like I said, fun for all! Sorry for being obscure there, Clary. Skip-Bo is fun too, I used to love it.

No, I knew about the cat, what I don't understand is name that diphthong. Explain!

I now hear there will be 17 people at the Christmas gathering... I think card games will be difficult to organise! Never heard of Skip-Bo but intrigued to learn it.

We have played a geography game--sit in a circle and have one person start by naming a geographic location. The next person in line must name another geographic location within 5 (or 10 for the young'uns?) seconds that begins with the last letter in the previous person's location.
Example:
player1: NigeriA
player2: AntwerP
player3: PlymoutH
player4: HawaiI

etc.
People who can't think of a location fast enough are "out", and their letter then passes to the next player. Last one in the game wins.

play UNO!!!!!!

DIPTHONGS

"Dipthongs are transitional vowels. They are powered by quasi-periodic puffs of air as vowels, but the vocal tract changes from an original configuration to a second target configuration which causes a transition in the resonance (and formants) of the tract. This change is usually predominately a shift in the second formant."

Examples from Finnish:

http://www.uta.fi/~km56049/finnish/diphthng.html

But this doesn't explain the game!

I have written dictionaries since 1971, cav... I know about diphthongs!

Play "name that disorder."

Kind of like charades, but you pick a disorder, and act it out, while people have to guess.

Like, you could eat a whole bag of chips in front of the group, then puke into a bucket. "Bulemia!!!"

Or you could start crawling around the room yelling "c'mere, you pink elf! They're EVERYWHERE!"
-Schizo

It's fun for the whole family!

MM-mm, thank you Slaps; there'll be enough puking after the huge Xmas dinner anyway...

Clary, the game is easy. Someone starts by writing a random two vowels on a piece of paper. They show it to the group. Everyone has a chance to vocalize the dipthong. The first to shout out which language or languages it is related to gets to start the next round. If it is related to more than one language, whoever gets the most wins. Quantity trumps 'first one in'.