Transit, Games and Kimmy

Having Kim visiting me here in my Seattle life has brought up a lot of thoughts and memories of my previous life(lives) that I've lived along side of her. We were riding the bus home the other night when I turned and said "Kim, we have spent a lot of time sitting side by side on public transit." Usually Kim would be knitting a project, and I would be making out-loud observations about print advertisements or nudging her to play a game with me while we rode the C train home to Brooklyn. This time, riding the 15 bus home to Blue Ridge, I managed to get Kim to play one of my favorite co-created NYC transit games: Phrase.

Phrase was started by Garth and myself, and has had a pretty good run. Its open-endedness and lack of competitive elements, may prove unappealing to many, but here's how you play. Someone starts the phrase chain with a one or two syllable word. The next person takes the last word or syllable and adds a new word, syllable or continuing phrase to it. this continues, with rules bending to fit phonetically or sneakily when necessary. The fun (dorky) part is that when you play you don't repeat the part you're adding to, you just keep talking. Thus, if you'd been sitting behind Kim and I the other night, this is the conversation you would have overheard. (might make more sense if you read it out loud)

Dog. Ie bag. Of gold. Ie Hawn. Solo. Nely*. Harvey Oswald. O wall carpet. Cleaner. Air. To the throne. To the wind. In my sails. And whales**. Of august. And everything after. The gold rush. Rush, hurry, hurry lover, come to me. Its me, its me, o Lord, standin’ in the need of prayer. For the children. Of men. Tos the fresh maker. ‘s mark. My word. To your mother. Mary. Had a little lamb. Zy divey. Ng board. Of directors. Chair. EE picker. Rve ball. S to the wall. Of China. Below us.***

* say this out loud and you might recognize the chorus of a song by The Police

** this is not a real phrase, but Kim said it and i loved it so much, I allowed it to be coined for the purpose of this game. Please start using this so it'll gain popularity. Like, if someone asks you why you're gonna ride the ferry, maybe say "Oh, you know, gonna check out some sails and whales."

*** this is the name of my stand up comedy routine, or at least the conversation i've had with myself onstage a few times in front of audiences, that I like to call a comedy routine