Sometimes, it is fun to play a game after dinner. Our son-in-law, that fine addition to our family that our daughter arranged decades ago, had an important birthday recently so Lynn arranged for a nice dinner. Afterwards, we played a game. We can play parlor games, using our living room as a parlor. We have had good times with them before playing Password.
You know the idea: there is a little card with a piece of red plastic on it. The word to be used is written in red and it is not in large letters. There are two teams of two people each. When Lynn and I are partners, I read the target word and I am allowed to say one word to her, choosing my word so that she will know what the target word is and say it aloud. If she hears my choice but her response is not the target word, a member of the other team tries to do the same thing. Clues are offered ten times and if anyone guesses the right target, that team gets points, each attempt reducing the point award by one.
Naturally, all four players are attempting to imagine what goes on in the current listener's mind with each clue. The most common strategy is to say a synonym and hope that the responder gets the right idea. So, if I say "night", you might guess the word to be something associated with night and say 'dark'. Or you might say a concept that often goes with night like day. Because there are so many options, such a universe of possibilities, we often find that two or three words are needed before it is clear what we are talking about.
After four words are used as targets, the 5th word is starred, is worth double points and is often harder to communicate. One starred word last night was "fickle". I have read that one translation of the title of the famous operatic aria is "Women are fickle". I just looked up 'fickle' and found
changing frequently, especially as regards one's loyalties, interests, or affection.
"Web patrons are a notoriously fickle lot, bouncing from one site to another on a whim"
Similar:
capricious changeable variable volatile mercurial vacillating inconstant
This word is indeed used once in a while, sometimes to mean actually unfaithful, like adulterous, but often to mean "being mildly flighty." We were having trouble so I tried another direction and said, "Pickle" hoping a rhyming word might be of use. Lynn had read the word to be ready to try with her partner and knew what I was doing but tried imagining what might be happening in the others' imaginations. She started laughing uncontrollably. She did land before we had to call for medical aid.
