Newlywed Gaming

Are you familiar with "The Newlywed Game"? If you aren't, congratulations and stop reading if you don't want a brief primer on it.

Said TV game show had its broadcast premier far too long ago (the same year I was born) and allowed viewers to watch 'newly' married couples drown in cheesy double entendres, incorrect answers to bad predictions, and the heinous euphemism 'making whoopee.' The host of the show liked to use that phrase a little too much, pushing him into that creepy uncle stage that not one of us likes, but I digress.

Why the primer? Because we played a version of it last night. It was on the occasion of a Christmas progressive dinner with a group of friends that culminated with dessert, a white elephant gift exchange, and a version of the aforementioned game. Dinner was great (my prime rib was delightfully rare) as was the company. It was a fun evening but I'm always a bit ambivalent about the versions of this game that get played at things like this. Just as things unfolded on the show, very often it leads to recriminations and some unpleasantness between at least one of the couples in attendance. For whatever reason, playing versions of this game has been pretty popular amongst our friends, no matter where we've lived. Over the years, I've seen some couples walk away plenty pissed after playing the game. Not that anything like that happened last night, even with my well-documented ability to say something inappropriate.

Actually, last night the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I were nicely tuned to one another's answers. That made getting through the game a whole lot easier. The fact that it was late, and by late I mean after 11PM (laugh at the hour being perceived as late, but I'm middle-aged), and I was tired probably minimized the risk of me saying something that would go horribly wrong. We are just shy of our 25th wedding anniversary (19 days and counting), so you'd think we'd be pretty good at knowing one another at this point. I'd say we are and I'm sure glad about that. Like I said, it made for a much easier night last night. I'll say this though if last night had been like the show, at least we'd have walked away with a nice consolation prize, like a year's supply of laundry detergent, instead of the creeptastic mother and child figurine that we got from the white elephant extravaganza. Just saying...