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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Charades, anyone? We'll end today with a call-in about the games you play, specifically the party games that you play with friends and family around the holidays. When it's cold outside, maybe it's better to do something than just sit around indoors and talk politics or the state of the world endlessly. 212-433-WNYC. It's a simple question in a way, does your family have a favorite board game or a card game or a game like charades that requires no props and no purchase products? 212-433-WNYC. Share your favorite indoor game. 212-433-9692. It can be a new game or an old game. Tell us why it works for you and your crowd. 212-433-9692. Call or text.

One of the reasons we're asking today is because there was news yesterday that the company Hasbro announced that it's laying off almost 17% of its workforce because of a slowdown in the sales of games and especially toys. Hasbro makes some of, if not the most popular board games around, Scrabble, Monopoly, Clue, Operation, you know that one where you remove organs with wire tweezers? Ew, that's a game? The slowdown in sales seems to be because we bought so many toys and games during the early days of the pandemic, so did you stock up? Did you find a new favorite? Do you give them as gifts?

Tell us about any new games you've discovered or if you've changed your game and toy buying habits at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You know what else might be interesting here? Are you noticing generational changes? Parents of current children, this one is for you, the games you played as kids, the board games, some of those Marquee name board games that I mentioned from Hasbro that maybe you played as a kid, are these the same board games that your children are playing now? Or is there a new generation of board games that you see that your kids are interested in? If so, how are they different? Is the nature of the competition the same? Is the nature of the content the same?

Are there cultural biases that are baked in or removed from new generations of board games? Anything like that. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. On the indoor games like board games that you play, that your children play. What do you do at the holidays? Do you have a family tradition of Scrabble or Clue or Risk? They still have Risk? Conquering the world as the object of the game? Tell us about your board games. You and your kids or your parents or your friends. 212-433-WNYC. What do you play at the holidays as part of your gatherings? We'll take your calls after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right, to your calls and texts on what board games you play with your family or friend gatherings around the holidays and generational differences in board games. Our lines are full at 212-433-WNYC, but you can still text to that number. We'll watch our texts go by, and we'll start with Debbie in Montclair. Hi, Debbie, you're on WNYC.

Debbie: Hi, Brian. The game that our family loves to play is called Ex Libris. It's a bluffing game, like the dictionary game, where in the dictionary game, you pick a word at random that's long and complicated and everybody tries to make up a definition. In this game, you have a deck of cards, each card represents a novel, a book. The front of the card has the title and a summary. The back has either the first lines of the book and the last lines. You're called upon to either come up with the first line or the last line of the book.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Debbie: Everybody says when you bring it up, "Oh, that's hard, I don't know literature." It's like you don't have to. You just have to listen and make something up. We found that it's really fun. Brainy people of all kinds really, really enjoy it because it's so creative.

Brian Lehrer: Nice one, Debbie. Thank you very much. Here's one coming in on text message. It's called Poetry for Neanderthals, says this listener. Hilarious. One person in the group always turns out to be amazing at giving clues in single-syllable words like a Neanderthal. I don't know if there's a slur there. I don't know this game, but if you accidentally use more than one syllable, you get bopped with an inflated balloon club. All right, a slapstick game, I guess. Steve in Roselle Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Steve.

Steve: Hey, Brian. The game my family and I play is called Farkle, F-A-R-K-L-E. You play it with dice. All you need is six dice and a piece of paper and a pen. It's similar almost in scoring to poker, three of a kind, straights, things like that. You have to get a certain number of points to get on the board and whoever gets 10,000 points wins. The thing is it travels very easily and it's just a whole lot of fun.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Steve. We're going to go to Erin in Windsor Terrace next. Hi, Erin. You're on WNYC.

Erin: Hey, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Happy holidays.

Brian Lehrer: You, too.

Erin: My friends and I, we go to this Lake Club in the summer in the Adirondacks and discovered an old Parker Brothers game. It's called Probe, P-R-O-B-E. It's an unfortunate name, but it's like a version of Hangman. Everyone has to pick an up to 12 letter word and you put the cards upside down and you guess each other's word. It's so much fun. You can only get it on eBay. It's discontinued, but we all have a box now, and we get together. Can I shout out my Probe crew?

Brian Lehrer: Sure.

Erin: We do probe nights, Stacia, Andros, Jackie, and Brian, and all of our respective teenagers. It's just a great pastime for all of us.

Brian Lehrer: Fun. Trove. Erin, thank you very much. All right. Here's another one via text. Listener writes, "At Thanksgiving, we played Blockbuster. Yes, the Movie Rental Business, that had us guessing movies via quotes, single word, and charade hints, so much fun and cutthroat." All right, Blockbuster. Lisa in Pelham, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lisa.

Lisa: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: Hey there.

Lisa: Thanks for taking the call. I'm calling you [inaudible 00:07:17] Tijuana Family Funfest. Some people call it Garbage Can, Garbage Bowl. It's a three-round game. You play in teams. Everybody starts by writing some kind of phrase or word or something, puts it in a big bowl, and then you take turn pulling them out. First round, you get to describe it without using the actual words in the clue. Second round is charade. Third round is a single gesture. It's really fun, and people make all sorts of silly gestures at the last round. It's a blast, and we play it all the time.

Brian Lehrer: Tijuana Family Funfest. Lisa, thank you very much. Harold in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Harold.

Harold: Hey, Brian. Happy holidays. Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to shout out Hasbro Games because I just found out this year that they're all union-made, which is awesome. I want to support that, so going classics for the holiday. Also, second shout out--

Brian Lehrer: Which makes that big layoff even sadder in a way, right? That they announced yesterday.

Harold: Oh, yes. I didn't hear about that yesterday. Sorry.

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.

Harold: Second shout out to Settlers of Catan but you got to be willing to have some Christmas-time arguments with your friends over it because it is cutthroat as well.

Brian Lehrer: What is it? I don't know that one.

Harold: Oh, Settlers of Catan, it's a board game that's been around for some time now. It's gained a lot of popularity. You play to get different resources and take over this board that's like a landscape. You just end up teaming up with people against different friends and making like-- It ends up being a little rough for people.

Brian Lehrer: Harold, thank you very much. Rachel in Rockland County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Rachel.

Rachel: Hi. Guys, this one's a great one. It's called Dutch Blitz. It's a card game. Everybody has their own deck of cards, their own color. You can order another deck so that more people can play. Everybody stands up around the table because you need to be able to reach into these piles. The idea of the game is that you want to get rid of your cards in the piles in numerical order. I can't remember what country it's from. It's Dutch [laughs].

Brian Lehrer: You mean it's called Dutch Blitz, so maybe it's from the Netherlands [chuckles].

Rachel: Maybe, exactly. It's got pictures of farmers and stuff on them but really, if you want to get rid of your numbers up to 10 or up to 12 and everybody's going fast, fast, fast, so it's really, there's a lot of laughter and a lot of frustration, but a lot of fun. Then in the end, the first one to win and to lose all their cards is the winner of that round. They get an extra certain number of points, everybody else has to deduct cards they have in their hands, and you keep going until you reach your goal of how many points the winner gets. Every time we bring it up for the newest person who joins for the holiday, it's fantastic. I highly recommend it.

Brian Lehrer: Rachel, thank you very much. I mentioned Risk before, that board game where the object is to conquer the world. Listener writes, "Thanks to Risk, I couldn't stop saying 'the Ukraine' for years." I guess the map on the risk board says "the Ukraine" instead of "Ukraine". Somebody else here writes-- All right. There were too many texts coming in. This already blanked off my screen. I'll try to get back to it. In the meantime, looks like Sasha and Brooklyn has a dad who makes up games. Sasha, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Sasha: Hey, Brian. Thanks for having me, long-time listener. I think this is such a great conversation because board games really took off during the pandemic. I want to tell you that my dad, Poppy Victor Acosta, always makes up the most ingenious and crazy games. Last year, he would blindfold [inaudible 00:11:34], sits them on the floor, crisscross applesauce, give them a mixing bowl, and they could choose either chopsticks or a spatula. Then he would sprinkle dollar bills in front of them, and then he would give you one minute to collect as much money as you could. It's just a total riot. Then last year, he did like a [inaudible 00:11:56] money and there was like 120 out there, the beans, and it stopped on the dollar, you would win it.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs].

Sasha: It was so much fun. Then my brother also makes games, so I want to give a shout-out to the game that he made. Can I give a shout-out to his game?

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.

Sasha: It's called Smixed, S-M-I-X-E-D and there's an app for it, you can play it online. It's harder than Wordle, and if you think Wordle is boring and mixed, it is amazing and [inaudible 00:12:34], so shout-out to [unintelligible 00:12:37].

Brian Lehrer: Sasha, you got to tell me one thing, though. Which picked up more dollar bills? The spatula or the chopsticks?

Sasha: It's a spatula world. You wouldn't think so, but a slow-- His wife who actually does a lot of design work and is really dexterous with her hands, was really good at scooping up random, imaginary dollars. Then every now and then she would get a $10 bill and she made it work. Go for the spatula-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Go for the spatula [laughs].

Sasha: Trying to pick up money with a spatula or something.

Brian Lehrer: If anybody else plays this game that Sasha's dad made up. Sasha, thank you very much. Wow, we could have kept going with this for a while, so many games out there. Maybe some of you who are looking for a new game got some tips. Thanks for everybody who called in and texted. That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen, who produces our daily politics podcasts. Subscribe where you get your podcasts. Our intern this term is Muskan Nagpal, Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. We had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Hey, stay tuned for All Of It. Huh?

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