Road Trip/ Car Games #3

Continuing in the tradition of Road Trip/ Car Games, I offer the following two entries. Neither of these requires any special equipment of expertise. Good luck and have fun...

Tunesmith

This is the perfect game to play with friends (or enemies). It works great on long car trips, or rainy afternoons. In fact, the best time to play this game may be when you are trying to avoid something productive like work, homework, cleaning, etc.

There is no equipment required and the rules are simple. Everyone begins by agreeing on a topic. In our example we will use the topic 'trees.' Now each person is required to think of and then sing a song about trees. To get credit for the song, the singer has to sing enough of it to establish that it is; 1) a legitimate song, 2) about a tree, or trees, 3) that it at least mentions a tree, and 4) not made up. All the other players determine whether or not the singer gets credit for his/her song. When a singer can not come up with a song, they are out for the remainder of the round. The last remaining singer wins the round.

Some acceptable tree songs would include... "O Christmas Tree," "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree," and "Misty" ('as helpless as a kitten up a tree'). After the tree round is completed a new topic is chosen and play resumes.

Some topics could include:
Color songs
Number songs
Broadway musicals
TV Theme songs
Beatles songs
Christmas songs
Religious Songs

You will want to come up with a lot of your own topics. It is more fun if the topic is a surprise to everyone so that no one can "plan" ahead.

The Jerry Garcia Game

I noticed several years ago that in almost any crowd there is at least one person who looks like Jerry Garcia. Jerry Garcia, as I am sure that you all remember, was the bearded leader of the Grateful Dead. This phenomenon became amazing to me. Everywhere I looked there was a Jerry Garcia, even though I knew that he was dead. That made me notice other people. You would not believe how many people look like someone else, famous or not.

One day when we were having lunch in a restaurant we saw a man at the next table who could have passed for the character actor M. Emmett Walsh. These "sort of" celebrities are all around you. Open your eyes.

So play this game the next time you are with a group and in a crowd. Find someone who looks like someone else. Point out your look-alike to your companions. Everyone then gets to vote on whether or not the look-alike really looks like who you say. If the person looks like a celebrity, you get two points for every yes vote. If the person looks like a personal friend or acquaintance, you get one point for every yes vote.