Points that I should have been awarded during a recent Scattergories game

Well, it’s the holiday, which means that my entire family is home. To celebrate, we recently had a family fun night, which involved playing some games. I should explain that when we were younger, my brothers were extremely jealous of how awesome I am at games. Perhaps that resentment still lingers, because I had an extremely difficult time getting some of my Scattergories answers approved. I present my case below as to why each answer should have been approved.

For those who don’t know, Scattergories is a game where you have a list of catergories, such as “a boy’s name,” “things in the refrigerator,” “countries”, etc. You roll a di for a letter of the alphabet, and then you have a minute to think of an answer for each of the categories, with the answer starting with the letter that was rolled. If your answer has two words, both with that letter, that’s two points.

I knew I was in for a rough night when I had to fight hard to get my family to realize that a stick bug was a real insect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_insect), and that “epidermis” is an item found at the beach (it’s friggin’ everywhere!), but these are the answers that were ultimately (and unfairly) denied:

-For the category “Things that are Sticky,” I answered: frog.
Justification: I could have been referring to many acceptable things here. First, there are those toys that are shaped like frogs that you can stick on windows and glass and whatnot. Second, I could have been referring to the black-spotted sticky frog (http://ecologyasia.com/verts/amphibians/black-spotted-sticky-frog.htm). Third, I just found a book on Amazon called “The Icky Sticky Frog.” For any of these three reasons, my answer should have been accepted.

-For the category “Awards/Ceremonies,” I answered: frisbee golf awards.
Justification: My brothers have been playing a lot of frisbee golf lately. And to award them, I recently decided to give them a certificate or a trophy or something to celebrate their work. But you know what? Now that you’ve deemed frisbee golf awards an invalid answer, I am DEFINITELY not doing that anymore.

-For the category “Cooking Utensils,” I answered: flipper
Justification: I think for this one, my family assumed that my ignorance in the kitchen extended to the names of utensils, and they thought I was trying to get away with calling a spatula a flipper. But in my defense, I present the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/Orka-All-Purpose-13-Inch-Turner-Flipper/dp/B000RYNOI4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1198513177&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Cook-Large-Flipper-Purple/dp/B000VSSP5S/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1198513177&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Cook-Perforated-Flipper-Green/dp/B000VSOXYU/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1198513177&sr=1-15
I mean, I could go on, but I think we all see it’s a perfectly valid term.

-For the category “Parks,” I answered: fossil bed.
Justification: The National Park Service has almost 200 search results for fossil bed, including Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (that technically would have been two points), the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

-For the category “Things in a Medicine Cabinet,” I answered: rope.
Justification: Okay, I can’t find really any good justification for this, but I still think rope would be a good thing to have in a medicine cabinet, just in case you need to make a tourniquet or something.

-For the category “Halloween costumes,” I answered: Ramona Quimby.
Justification: I think lots of little girls are probably dressing up as Beverly Cleary’s most beloved character.

-For the category “Kinds of Dances,” I answered: doo-wop
Justification: I’d hate to be the one to tell the New England Doo Wop Society (http://www.newenglanddoowopsociety.org/) that their New Year’s Eve Dance Party is an invalid event, wouldn’t you?

-For the category “College Majors,” I answered: dentistry
Justification: A search by major on U.S. News and World Report reveals that Dalhousie University, Ohio State University, University of British Columbia, University of Florida, University of Kentucky, University of Toronto, and University of Western Ontario all offer a major in dentistry.

-For the category “Things at a circus,” I answered: ignorance.
Justification: Ignorance is everywhere!

-For the category, “Famous Females,” I answered: Wonder Woman
Justification: My family did not accept this because Wonder Woman is a fictional character. I would respond that this category does not specify whether is has to be real or not. It’s true that I did not accept my father’s answer of “Nicholas Nickleby” during the category “Historical Figures,” but that category denotes that the figure must be of history and not of literature. Wonder Woman, real or not, is famous and easily identifiable by her outfit.

-For the category, “Names Used in the Bible,” I answered: wise men.
Justification: While it is true that we know the names of the wise men, “wise men” is the name used to refer to them. I just did a little internet research, and the term “wise men” appears 44 times in the Bible. Particularly in this Christmas season, I believe we should count “wise men” as a name and award the point to me.


I believe I have adequately provided justification for 11 additional points (I won’t even give myself a point for rope), and I must declare myself the winner of this game which occurred two days ago.