Wordsmith Wednesday Recap: Board Games Will Never Get Old
How much do YPGers love board games? Enough for 50 of us to come out to the AAP offices on January 23rd, i.e. the coldest night New York has seen in two years, just for the chance to throw down against our publishing friends at YPG’s Wordsmith Wednesday. (There was also free beer. That may have been a factor.)
YPG Member Julianne Helinek displays her hand
The most popular game of the evening was Apples to Apples, which makes sense because (a) many people can play Apples to Apples at one time, and (b) more than other board games, playing Apples to Apples can give you a defining sense of self. For example: when the Cuddly adjective card is on the table, are you the type of person who plays the noun card Giving a Hug, or are you the type of person who plays Charging Rhinos? Thankfully most of us (at least at my table) fell into the latter group, which made for some hilarious moments, like the turn when two separate people put down Icebergs and The Titanic for Harmful, or the turn when someone put down Backstreet Boys for Legendary…actually, that’s not a joke, that’s just the truth. My personal claim to fame was winning the adjective cards for Desperate, Shallow, Dirty, and Talented, which I took as a sign that my future in publishing is very bright.
Around the room other YPGers were playing Cards Against Humanity (according to the website, it’s like Apples to Apples but for “despicable and awkward” people, so wait, how did I miss out on this?), Scattergories, and Taboo. I wasn’t in the group playing Taboo, but they were pretty buzzer-happy over in their corner so I assume that means they were having a good time. I did get in on a Scattergories game though, and that was fun! Except for the round when one of the people at our table couldn’t think of a book title that starts with the letter R at a publishing event full of book people. That was embarrassing for that person, who was definitely not me.
But minor humiliations aside, playing board games with YPG was a blast, more than enough to make up for the freezing weather we endured on the way home. Here’s hoping everyone else wants a rematch, preferably soon.
P.S. Scattergories friends, remember how you said I couldn’t count elephants as “things that jump”? I want my point back—they totally can.
Julianne Helinek is a customer development assistant at Macmillan Higher Education, which is a fancy way of saying she researches ways to get students to buy textbooks. In her downtime she enjoys reading, writing, and wondering why they don’t teach reading and writing at Hogwarts—aren’t those critical skills that should be developed beyond age 11? She will tweet at @JulianneHelinek until Justin Bieber retweets her, at which point she will shut her account down because she will have won the internet.
