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Friday, April 9, 2010

Fun and Games Friday: Points Edition

There’s nothing like Pesach to get you into the competitive spirit.

After all, no matter where you turn, you’re sure to hear someone asking:

  1. How early did you start your cleaning?
  2. How much did you procrastinate before you started your cleaning?
  3. How late did your Seder end?
  4. How quickly did you get all your Pesach stuff put away after the chag?
  5. And so on…

But nothing says competition like a well-played game of… Points.

{notes the readers’ blank stares and hastens to explain}

Points, my friends, is a world-famous virtually-unknown-outside-the-extended-Shiputzim-family, challenging not-overly-exciting game of wits of chance, which pits sibling against sibling and parent against offspring.

For the uninitiated – i.e. those of you who aren’t related to me – here’s a brief lowdown of the game:

The object is to meet as many of your acquaintances as possible during a given outing.

For each person you meet, you get a point - hence, the name – and the winner is the competitor who has the most points at the end of the outing.

Yes, it really IS that simple. :-)

But there are several rules:

  1. In order to get the point, you must actually speak to the acquaintance. Nodding or waving – without so much as a quick “hello” – doesn’t count.
  2. You must have met the acquaintance at least one time before. (Online meetings are acceptable.) In other words, striking up a conversation with a total stranger may be sociable, but it won’t get you any points.
  3. If you and another member of your party bump into someone whom you both know, the first one to speak to the acquaintance gets the point.

Needless to say, Points can be played anytime and anywhere, but to maximize your points, check out Yerushalayim – especially the Old City - during Chol Hamo’ed.

It’s like, well, a mecca (pardon the expression :-)) for Points players…

smile_teeth

!שבת שלום ומבורך

 

7 comments:

  1. I'm just going to have fun answering your questions (and ignore the points part, which would drive me insane):

    - as late as possible with kitchen conversion. I like chametz and kitniyot even more than chametz.

    - procrastinate - with my new boxes method, I started the day after Purim dumping chametz into boxes. So you could trip and fall in my kitchen for one month.

    - Too late. I actually made it to the 3 am the second night. Can't say I enjoyed making it, and my body has needed more rest ever since.

    - Quick! thanks to one industrious hubby and 2 box lugging boys. Though getting everything of chametz stuff back where it was seems to be my job, and that's still not done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah,
    we did that too.

    But it was clear that DS 1 would win, until DD's new fiancee joined us, and he was doing quite well.

    Now that DS 2 is also in Yeshiva high school, he did quite well too.

    So what day were you in the old city, Wednesday or thursday (this year the chances of meeting someone there went way up, as there were only 2 days of Hol Hamoed for going out!)

    (Maybe I would have met you, but we do not know who you are!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leora - As I noted in this post, it sometimes takes MONTHS for all the chametz stuff to be put away...
    :-)

    Keren - DD's new fiancee?
    It sounds like you get a Mazal Tov!
    And you're right that as the kids get older, they know more and more people, and theoretically, they should be the clear winners when playing Points. But at least with the boys, they don't really SPEAK to the friends and acquaintances they bump into. It's more of a grunt accompanied by a subtle nod, and according to the Official Points Rules (as stated in this post), that doesn't count...
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. We have a spear the egg contest seder game, trying to get your spoon into the squirming boiled egg as it rolls in the salt water.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the mazal Tov,
    We are making a wedding (do not yet know how)

    with us, my son gives a hearty hand-shake and maybe a hug, but definitely talks to them (so it does count, cos he talks a lot :-))

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice game. Not easy in a big town though I'd think.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Batya - Cute! :-)

    Keren - Here, the hugs are reserved for the ulpanistiyot... :-)
    Good luck with all the wedding plans!

    Ilana-Davita - Israel is such a small country that it's nearly impossible to go somewhere and NOT bump into someone you know...

    ReplyDelete

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