Upstaged

We have a game called Apples to Apples. The premise of this game is that each round, there is a card with a noun or an adjective and everyone tries to play a card from their hand that best matches that word. For example, say the card says “Spunky.” You would have to decide which of your cards (say Santa Claus, Demi Moore, Beanie Babies, or The Beatles) was the best match.

This afternoon Erika and Natalie asked me to be the full-time judge. Natalie read the first card aloud. It was “mischievous” but she mispronounced it “mis-chee-vee-uhs.” I corrected her: “mis-chuh-vuhs.” She immediately retorted, “No dad. It is “mis-chee-vee-uhs. Riley told me.”

I said, “I’m telling you that it is pronounced ‘mis-chuh-vuhs.’ And I am not in 4th grade.”

“You are wrong. It is “mis-chee-vee-uhs. Trust me.”

Trust? It isn't about trust. I asked her if she saw anything to the right of the “v” that looked like an “ee” sound but she didn’t care. Riley told her. OK, her father who is an aspiring writer with two college degrees vs. a girl in her class that has red shorts. Hmmm. Tough one. She still doesn’t believe me.

The girls had a bad habit of playing a quick verbal justification with their card, which is technically against the rules. The word “Comical” was showing and after some consternation Erika played a card, warning me that I needed to read the card’s descriptive caption to understand the link. Her card said “David Letterman.” That was comical.

The game was full of difficult choices for me. What is more luxurious? Barbed wire or beets? What about sexy? Fidel Castro or Regis Philbin? On the card “Phony” Natalie lobbed in her card and said, “Fernelious. It is a plant, and some plants are fake.”

Fernilious? I turned the card over and it said, “Funerals”

Did Riley teach you this one too?