With the recent school closings, we have had a lot of family time lately.  A lot.  One of the games that has picked up around here is the bad-weather classic called Spoons.  If you have never played it, you should never start.  It is rivaled in it's addictive qualities only by heroin, so if you haven't tasted it, just watch other people do it and report later.  It is much safer.

For the uneducated, Spoons is played with one less spoon than players (think musical chairs), and a few decks of cards.  Once shuffled, every player gets dealt four cards.  The dealer then starts drawing cards, looking for 4 of-a-kind, discarding the ones he/she can't use.  Those cards are picked up by the next player, who decides and discards.  That cycle is repeated through all players, until one play finds four of the same in their hand.

That is when the gates of Hell open up.  The "winner" of the round grabs a spoon.  Sometimes quietly, sometimes obviously, and that signals to the rest of the players to grab one as quickly as you can, leaving the last person spoon less and the subject of ridicule the likes of which I have not seen since 4th grade playground. Chairs are toppled, spoons bent and a few fights over possession carry over into another room.

It was shocking to revisit this game, since I hadn't played in years.  But also fun. A lot of fun.  It's also great conflict resolution.  I hope to someday see world leaders sitting around a table solving conflicts…but only if Rock, Paper Scissors hasn't figured it out.

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