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Even the Brainless Excel at Cranium |
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Evanston, IL: It was a Friday night on EMP 61’s second February session. Although a winter wind taunted the Allen Center, the well-lit North Lounge comforted 61ers, who looked forward to unwinding after yet another challenging class day. The class looked to Reza Ghorieshi for release. With the best of intentions, Reza responded by opening a box containing a game called “Cranium.” Reza’s classmates were eager to play. After all, who wouldn’t want to “have outrageous fun with friends” playing “the smash-hit party game”? Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to “shine as the team hums, whistles, sketches, sculpts, acts, puzzles, and even spells backwards to win”? Cranium lured players with |
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seductive promises such as these, and the gamers exulted at thoughts of shining, humming, whistling, playing, and so forth. Sadly, the game played the gamers. Humiliation
and degradation: these terms took on new meaning for 61ers when
they matched wits at Cranium. Matt Bianchi shouted “to the
cave” while aping super-heroic gestures to elicit the response
“Batman” from his teammates. Brian Gillam flopped on
the floor and mouthed bizarre motions with his lips and tongue to
convey the term “mermaid." Michael Walloga hummed what
sounded like the American national anthem only to later reveal that
he had attempted “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees. Todd
Reding, 61’s wanna-be dentist, successfully sculpted a tooth
out of clay to help his teammates guess the correct answer “molar.”
In short, all four individuals helped their groups guess the correct
answer, but none of them left the game with the dignity supposedly
owed members of the Executive Masters Program. |
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