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Fun and Games | Dec 24 2001

Rachel and I play a game she invented called The Hate Game. Maybe you’d like to try it. Together with a friend, take turns naming things you hate and why you hate them. The game is over when you run out of things to hate. One nice thing about The Hate Game is that you don’t have to be reasonable or rational in what you hate; you are free to hate anything and everything, without compunction or constraint.

Another game I like is called Conversation. I invented this one. Go for a walk with a friend and take turns choosing, at each possible place to turn, which way to turn. The game is over when you return to where you began or tire of playing. Some clarifying rules: 1) The person whose turn it is decides what constitutes a possible place to turn, beyond the obvious. 2) The decision to go forward counts as a turn.

A friend who grew up in New York on the Upper East Side told me about a game she played as a girl called Furs. She and her friends would compete to see who could touch the most fur coats in a single day. The record was two hundred and five.

Rachel’s friend Sarabeth invented a game called What Am I Thinking? Here one person thinks of something (absolutely anything!) and everyone else asks yes-or-no questions until they figure out what it is. A good game to play during a hostage crisis.

But probably my favorite game, because I’m so good at it, is The Sleep Game. Everyone lies down to sleep, and whoever falls asleep first, wins.