Thursday, April 28, 2011

"The Game of Famous Persons"

As I promised that this blog would be for all things literary, and not just about writing, or reading, or any one thing, than I decided I'd tell you all about a game I recently discovered in the American Girls' Handibook.

(First of all, I really want to recommend this book to any young lady who loves the 1800's, and who wants amazing ideas for all sorts of things- this book was written by two sisters, Lina and Adelia Beard in the 1800's. The only thing I cannot fully recommend is the chapter on Halloween which naturally has some iffy stuff in it.)

Anyway! To move on. This game is called "The Game of Famous Persons" and is a super easy game to play while working in the garden, or doing some other task where you hands are not free.
It's really simple. Think of a famous person, like Shakespeare. Your task is to describe the name to the others players, so for Shakespeare I might say, "My first is something you do when you are cold, my second is a weapon of warfare."
The first person to guess goes next. Sometimes you can tweak the hints and make it a little harder. For instance, in one game I was trying to get my sister to guess "Columbus", and I said, "My first is something in a palace or temple. My second is a mode of transportation." Get it? Column-bus? :P These sorts of conundrums can be tricky, but they are so satisfying when you get them! There are lots of names that work well for this game, among them

Wordsworth (Word and worth)
Goldsmith (Gold, and Smith)
Cromwell (Sounds like "bomb", and a Well)
Angelo (Angel, and Low)
Columbus (Column, Bus)
Shakespeare (Shake, Spear)

And any others you can think of, modern or historic. :) You could even throw in well-known characters from books, if you wanted. Try this game sometime with friends who love to read, and see how far you get!

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