Season 6, meeting #5 of 8
Games played: Medieval Madness, Indiana Jones, Getaway, Attack from Mars, The Simpsons Pinball Party
The other best reason to go to The Avenue. Can I have the one that fell on the windowsill?
Joseph is a prolific writer with several blogs, and posts in at least one of them (and often more than one) every single day. One of the habits he has cultivated is to take notes as soon as he has an idea for a blog post, so that he has something to jog his memory when he sits down to write. I have tried to take his advice and do this myself, so when I get home from league night I usually jot down a list of phrases intended to help me remember the most interesting things I observed that evening. This usually works very well, with even terse and cryptic phrases readily bringing events back to mind.
Usually. This time, however, I find the following notation at the bottom of my list, verbatim: “Everyone gave Russell a hard time about everything.” I have no idea what this refers to; I can’t remember a single thing that Russell was being hassled about, let alone everything. On the other hand, it is not hard to picture the kind of scene that would give rise to that hyperbolic note. I will, then, leave that as an exercise for the reader.
Some notable appearances included Janine’s son Logan, who got some expert coaching from Chris and a photo of himself in the ‘possum comic foreground[1]; Mike’s cousin Andy, who was brought along specifically with the hope that he would push us into playing 6 games for the night (he didn’t, and ended up deciding not to play); and James, who returned after a long absence to an enthusiastic welcome. Adam came back for his second meeting and is apparently going to be a regular from here on out, so the rest of us are going to have to step up our Attack from Mars game.
It was voting day, so the primaries were a major topic of discussion. Mike complained about how my “I Voted” sticker was a lot bigger and fancier than the one he got at his polling place. I tried to avoid getting involved in political conversations, but when pinned down I did admit that I am typically a partisan voter and would vote for whomever my party nominated.
Chris warms up for league by standing under the heat lamp.
Chris, overhearing this, said, “oh, so you’re a monotypic genus.” I thought at first that it referred to having the same genus and species name, so I honestly thought for a moment that he was calling me a Rattus rattus and started to respond indignantly. (I subsequently looked it up and learned that a species “double named” like that is actually called “tautonymous,” a word that delights me.) After a moment I realized (correctly) that it surely referred instead to a genus that contains only one species. I said, “Are you calling me a, uh… I can’t think of an example of a monotypic genus… oh wait, wait, I know one! Oryctolagus!” – that being the genus of the domestic rabbit. It was only long after the evening was over and I was back home that I realized that this is surely exactly what he meant, as I was wearing my bunny cape. With l’esprit de l’escalier, I wished I had replied that I was a Sylvilagus.[2]
Although Mike’s plan to have Andy push us to the six-game threshold did not come to fruition, we did play five games, which has become routine for us this season due to our increasing attendance. One of those games was Indiana Jones… and we very nearly got away with it. The very last group of the night suffered the usual ball-lost-in-the-idol malfunction, started another game, and had it happen again. At that point Matt said he would just scratch IJ, and I dissolved into despair, as I’d had my best league game of it ever at the beginning of the night. Fortunately (and, I’m embarrassed to say, partly because of my wailing), the group agreed to provisionally take their existing scores with the option to replace them with a makeup game prior to the next league meeting.
I’m not sure what happened, but I took hardly any photos this time, so I’m sorry to say I don’t have much to show. I seem to have gotten so engrossed in the night that I just forgot to get behind the lens. I hope I have made up for it with this exceptionally educational recap, complete with footnotes. As always I do have the results (pending makeup games) posted. That’s all for now, folks, but League Night #6 is Tuesday, so I’ll see you then, and we can all resume giving Russell a hard time.
***
[1] Did you know those stand-ups with a hole cut out for your face are called “comic foregrounds”? Better, did you know they were invented and patented by C. M. Coolidge, the artist behind “dogs playing poker”? Now you do!
[2] A genus containing many species of cottontail rabbits.
Can’t REMEMBER why your notation re Russell. FORGOT to take more pics. Weren’t drinking too much beer, were you? Though, that’s a better reason than getting old and forgetful.