My close friends Max Bean (pictured right, in a painting done years ago by the artist John Hardy) and Mojo Lorwin were in town to visit. Max is a writer/teacher involved with many political and social movements in New York City. Mojo is a musician/writer/teacher who recently campaigned and organized for Obama in New Hampshire and played in the nyc based band 'Thunder and Lightning.' Max taught me a very cool associative word game that Lawrence Detlor (poet and math genius) taught them. I've already played it with my Flying Object class and my College Writing class at ELMS.
Here are the rules in case you want to try it:
1) One person thinks of a word (typically a noun) and says "one." They do not say the word they are thinking.
2) Another person thinks of a word (typically a noun) and says "two."
3) The two "speakers" wait a beat and then say "three" in unison.
4) Also in unison (or near unison), the two speakers say their words aloud.
5) Everyone playing (including the two initial speakers) try to think of a word "in the middle" of the two words.
6) When someone thinks of a word that might possibly be "in the middle," they say "one."
7) The game continues until two people arrive at the same word.
You can't repeat the same word in the same game.
Sometimes the same word is arrived at on the second round. "Plant" "Beer" and then the next two people said "Weed." "Banana" "Three" and then two people said "Bunch." Other times, the words circle around each other and it takes 20 rounds to find common ground.
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