Saturday, February the 7th, 2004

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A Parlour Game

Thisis a parlour game, popular in Finland, in which the players must imagine themselves hopelessly trapped in an abandoned and waterlogged mineshaft, quite alone apart from the company of a notorious psychopathic murderer.

There are two sets of cards which must be shuffled mightily and placed face down on the table. From the first pack, players are allowed to choose three cards each, on which, when turned over, they will find written the name of an object or implement which may be used to effect an escape. A typical selection could read: a pin-cushion (innocent of pins); a small AA battery (dead); and twelve postage stamps from the Plunkett collection (non-adhesive).

A further three cards, from the second pack, are then chosen. These will give further crucial information about each player's entrapment, to wit, for example: your left leg is broken in three places; you have been blind since birth; and a starling has built its nest in your tremendous bouffant.

Players are each given forty five seconds to describe their method of escape, which must be plausible, vivid, logically watertight, and lead to the apprehension of the psychopath by doughty Inspector Calloway and his lame bloodhound, Tim.