Games | Words on the Street

You may remember reading about the rivetingly interesting car number plate game which I invented. Well, the other day, I recalled reading in a book once about another game (not invented by me this time) which I cannot remember the name of just at the moment, where one person says a word and the other person has to say a word with absolutely no connection with the first person’s word. Now you may think that sounds quite boring, but the fun part of the game is the challenge! The challenge, that is, of the first person who must maintain that there actually is a connection and proceeds to describe the thought processes involved in linking the first and second words with, of course, hilarious consequences. Hopefully.

For example, the first person might say “Camilla”. Now, clearly, the second person could not say “horse’s bottom”, for example, but he (or she) could say “Tiger”, fondly imagining that the first person would certainly fail in the attempt to establish any kind of link between the two. The first person, however, is probably made of sterner stuff and, although possibly stumped momentarily, would undoubtedly respond in magnificent fashion by revealing the following intricate mental itinerary not envisioned by the second person: Camilla – Parker Bowles – Bowls – Woods – Tiger. Get the idea? Oh, please yourselves; you can’t help some folk.

I believe I have come up with an idea which could revolutionise the in-car entertainment business. It beats the game of Spotting Car Number Plates By Starting At One Then Counting Consecutively Thereafter into a cocked hat.

All you have to do is spot a registration and then think of another (extremely hilarious for some reason, and imaginary, although I accept you could hit on one that does exist by accident, I mean you would have chosen it by accident, not that it exists by accident, not that you’d know that, of course, anyway, if you’re still with me) registration that could satisfactorily either precede or follow the one you spot. If you’re having difficulty keeping up, let me give you an example from actual play.

On the way back home from a meeting in Hertfordshire, I passed a car bearing the registration 27 DEC. “Hmmm,” I mused, “That gives me an idea for a game” (go back to read the above in case you weren’t paying attention). “An extremely hilarious made-up registration which could satisfactorily precede that one would be 26 ANT.” D’you see?

Of course, there would have to be a rule which would forbid making up registrations that are of no interest whatsoever, like 26 DEC or 28 DEC, for example.

With a bit of fine tuning, I bet this could rapidly become a nationwide craze, even perhaps an Olympic sport one day. I might write to the Minister of Games about it; anyone know where he lives?