America's Spirit
If you want to bring life to the party, stay away from the board game, America’s Spirit. Here is the classic example of a game whose simplicity was shunned by the marketing department. Instead of a simple deck of cards with Americana trivia, the game is complicated by an unnecessary board, tokens, and egg timer that always seems to favor the opposition.
The problem with trivia games is twofold. Trivia games provide a sense of pure elation when you answer correctly and leave you feeling like an ass when you don’t. And in case you are wondering, my game left me feeling like the latter. Here are just a few exchanges overheard by a fly on the wall:
Heidi: He was the first person to fly…
BJ: Wilbur Wright
Heidi: No…
BJ: Okay, Orville Wright
Heidi: No…
Heidi: No, uhh, I have wrong person
(Actual Answer: Orson Welles)
Matt: It was the party they had in Boston.
Colin: The…Boston Tea Party?
Matt: Yeah!
BJ & Heidi: You’re not supposed to put the words in the clue!!!
Heidi: Great lake.
BJ: Huron
Heidi: No
BJ: Ontario
Heidi: No
BJ: Michigan, Eerie, Superior
Heidi: Maybe it’s not a great lake!
(Lake Champlain)
Colin: It’s a breakfast pastry you cook in the toaster?
Matt: Hot Pockets! (Matt making reference to a recurring joke)
(Colin laughs so hard that the egg timer is stopped)