Originally published at Thus Sayeth the Lord…. You can comment here or there.

Picture taken from www.FromOldBooks.org

My wife and I enjoy playing games together. M can usually win with games like Settlers of Catan, or Carcasonne; I’m unbeaten (barely!) at Queen’s Necklace. Anytime there’s luck involved…that’s when I excel. Or at least hold my own.

Some other games we love:

Scrabble
Apples to Apples
Mystery of the Abbey (if you’re a sore loser DO NOT play my wife at any type of “Clue” or “Mystery of–” game. Your loss is practically guaranteed. She’s like Mrs. Polifax and Alison Dubois rolled together, only cuter and less whiny. And more real, too. )
Puerto Rico
Teams of Enemies
Guillotine

I can’t think of a better way for two (adult) people to sabotage an otherwise amicable and friendly game than to start worrying about whether or not one should win. When you’re playing children, it’s different– I’ve made it a practice to only win against my children when they are being poor sports. Or if we’re playing kickball.

(Kickball is war, you see. Children need to learn these lessons before the liberal media, or the schools get ahold of their minds. Kickball is more than a game…it is everything.)

When adults play against adults, the game’s the thing. We left all that chest-beating posturing behind back when chest beating actually was attractive to females; you know, when we had forearms as big around as telephone poles, and craniums the size plums.

Adults play to have fun. Winning doesn’t even enter the equation, except as a term used to indicate that the board should be cleared and reset.