Conversations With Ben #25: Bluff

Ben: Joe Perra Season 3 is on All 4 as of today!!

Rol: Cool. I will fire up the kitchen TV.

(For some reason, I can only get All 4 on the kitchen TV, not the one in the lounge.)

Is there a chair or do you stand to watch it?

It's the kitchen. There is a dining table and chairs. Although, as a family, we spend more time playing Ticket To Ride there than eating.

Europe or America?

Europe. Wild West. 1812 expansion pack. France. London. New York is in the cupboard, but we haven't played that yet.

I think New York is my favourite as it's only a 15 minute game.

Use it as more of a warm up game before something with a lot of depth.

So is London, but I prefer the games to go on. I'd rather have an unlimited supply of trains and just keep building more and more routes. It's preferable to actual adult responsibilities and stuff.

(Bit obvious that, I know.)

Louise is going out tonight, so I was looking forward to having the big TV to myself... 

Only now we've had a power cut.

And since you're no longer at The Bad Place, you don't want to just sit in the dark crying?

Saturday night crying in the dark... reminds me of my 20s.

Do you have six dice?

Farkle could be something a bit different.

Or if you have two dice and 12 paperclips or other small objects, you can play Pickup.

Both quick games. Farkle is a point scoring game, Pickup is chance.

Can you play them in the dark?

With a torch.

You could always play Blind Man's Buff.

I think you might mean bluff.

Buff.

Maybe yours is a more niche version.

Mrs. Ben and I had this exchange a while back....

It's Buff.

Buff means nekkid.

Bluff means bluff.

Ben sends a link. 

You just have to make everything about sex.

"The traditional name of the game is "Blind Man's Buff", where the word 'buff' is used in its older sense of a small push."

Yes, but Wikipedia can be edited by people who are desperate to win arguments.

As an academic, you should know it's not a reliable source.

Ben sends another link. 

Though not discussing the game itself, these articles clearly indicate the qualities of the game Blind Man's Buff as a stand in for more serious issues that are mirrored in the gameplay.

That sentence made no sense at all. You're just trying to bamboozle me with words now.

Also, I note that it took you quite some time in between replies. Long enough to write a couple more website articles to back up your fallacies.

Sage has an average of 8 months before an article is accepted for review, more if they want any changes or amendments. If not, it's still three more months until it goes online.

I'm not sure about Wiley as I've not sent anything through them.

Presumably that's powered by ACME.

If I had done such a quick turnaround, then it most definitely wouldn't have been cited in at least 7 other papers which also need to go through a similar process.

Now you're just trying to blind me with academia.

Me, I found only one song that referenced Blind Man's Buff...

Whereas I found loads that reference Blind Man's Bluff, including Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Rush, The Inspiral Carpets, Del Amitri, The Blue Osyter Cult... and this:

I know who I believe.

I didn't realise that being a successful musician meant you had to have knowledge of the history of children's games.

And anyone that can be grouped with the Inspiral Carpets is a group I would go to great pains to distance myself from.

The Typhoo Tea of Britpop.

Clint Boon was a god.

I'd rather take advice on children's games from him than Robert Plant.

Also, they were way before Britpop.

They're older than you!

I have no respect for a band that does a reunion show once a week at The Leadmill.

Either write some new music or commit to a tour that's not also full of washed up bands.

This Is How It Feels is an anthem of my late teenage years.

Meant a lot to me, that song.

I thought you were in your late thirties when that came out.

I was 18.

They were the equivalent of The Rakes to my generation.

I prefer Boon's quirky solo stuff though.

White No Sugar was great.

Power still off. 

Keeping ourselves entertained though... Sam has created his own version of Ticket To Ride. Geography is a bit suspect.

Meanwhile, I'm currently lighting a bonfire out of CD inlays in the back garden to cook a dead rat on.

24 hours and you've already resorted to savagery.

Is it at least CDs from Uncut?

I'm starting with the Morrissey CDs.

Taking them out of circulation rather than donating. Smart.

It's kind of the opposite of burning a KKK cross.

This is my Morrissey substitute these days. It's like Morrissey Methadone...

Has the power returned to the house or are you even more feral?

Louise was just about to saw off my leg when the electric came back on.

I don't understand why that stopped her.

Me neither.