a. raymond johnson

Guessing Games

I’m pretty good at games like password, taboo, pyramid; once during a game of 20 questions, I correctly guessed “David Leisure” after 6 inquiries and another time I correctly guessed “Bob Hope” after four, but both of those instances were on long road trips with people I was dating, so the combination of long hours of playing with day-to-day intimacy makes sense when those giant leaps happen.

The weekend before last I was vacationing at the cabin of a friend of a friend’s family, with a small group of strangers and acquaintances.  On the second day, my friend Nicole suggested a round of two-person catchphrase, and I accepted.  Nicole and I have started hanging out more in the past year and I certainly adore her, but I’m still filling in the gaps of getting to know who she is and the trip was the first time we’d even spent significant time together beyond a few meals or house parties.  So, we were 15 minutes into our game of Catchphrase, using the timed beeper version.  If you don’t know the game, it throws up words or phrases from a category and you are trying to get the person(s) to guess without saying the words — basically Taboo with no restrictions, so it’s about getting as many as possible before time is up.  I was pleasantly shocked when this happened during a turn in the entertainment category.

Nicole: “Oh.  Um, I don’t actually know why this person is famous…..”

Me:  ”Carmen Electra.”

And that was correct!  Catchphrase soul twins.

Seriously, you always want me on your team when playing charades.