Running Charades, No Hands

When I was back home in Ithaca in November, not only did I get to attend the  awesome "Wonderful World of Words" puzzle weekend, but also for once I was around when my friend Rebecca's family hosted one of their legendary Thanksgiving weekend games days.

(An aside: More accurately I'd like to say, "My friend Rebecca, and her family, with whom I am also friends," but that's far too wordy in English... German, though not usually known for being succinct, has an elegant solution here: the phrase "eine befreundete Familie," which expresses the whole sense of "a family I'm friends with." Sometimes I miss German words in English!)


Pictured: A game in progress. (Actually, I think this was where a secret message was found hidden inside a kiwi...)

Anyway, Rebecca's family's games days are legendary by now, but I'm never in the US when they happen, so it was a treat to be there. There are many games played at games day, but this crowd's absolute standard is probably Running Charades.

You know Charades, where you're given a phrase to act out in mime? Well, this is the same, except that there are two teams in separate rooms. Each team gets the same clues, and when a player guesses one, they dash to a central point (in this case, the kitchen) where a neutral non-player hands them the next clue to act out. Whichever team gets through all the clues first wins!

This time, Rebecca's brother Tom came up with a devilish twist: clues that had to be acted out with no hands. Things like "Lean on Me" or "My Left Foot" that could be acted out with the whole body.

Both groups did an amazing job of creating a hand-less shorthand for the usual Charades gestures – things like hopping to indicate the number of words in the clue, or doing the typical gestures for "book" or "movie" but using their feet instead of hands.


Pictured: Charades (though earlier in the evening, when hands were still allowed).

Because they were doing so well, Tom kept adding clues – and they got harder.

I was in the kitchen, helping hand out the clues, so I got to hear all the best parts, like Rebecca dashing in to pick up her next clue and at the same time yelling to me, "Write this down: 'It's hard out there for an armless pimp!'" (Said by Ben, who'd been trying to mime "Big Pimpin'" by strutting around, but without being allowed to use his arms.)

Or to sum it up more succinctly: "This sucks." (Joseph, about trying to mime "Les Miserables" with no hands.)

Recently Rebecca wrote that at her family's Christmas games day, the Running Charades crowd (which always tended toward complex clues anyway – you know, things like "the military-industrial complex") tried out a new different twist: clues composed of two different titles that share a first and last word.

Like: "Mad Men Who Stare At Goats."

Awesome!