Games
Friday October 31, 2025
Des sometimes plays this fun game where he screams like he’s being held against a hot stove until the person with the miserable duty of soothing him passes him to literally anyone else, and he morphs into a content little angel. Mom or Dad could hand him to some smelly dude in the middle of pooping in the Downtown Crossing T station, and he’d give us that silent, vacant look that says, “I won.”
It’s fitting that our child appears to enjoy games, since Lindsay and I built the foundation of our love on Monopoly Deal marathons. If I’ve learned anything from playing games with my 5-year-old nephew, Rye, it’s that children tend to cheat — purposely or innocently. Rye is perhaps the nicest cheater in the world in his dinosaur memory game, in which he continually flips over cards until he finds matches, and then allows you to do the same. At least we’re playing with the same rules, although he somehow always seems to win. Desi’s natural penchant for tilting the scales in his favor appears to run in the family.
Anyway, I’ve made a note that I will have to break his will early when we start playing real games. I will not be the father who gets beaten by his 11-year-old son in 1-on-1. If I’m the father who could get beaten by his 16-year-old son in 1-on-1, I will change the rules or threaten eviction so that I win.
This mission begins with really the only game that we can play together on equal footing right now: Staring contests. He might not know that he’s playing, but he takes an unnaturally long time between blinks, so he’s at an advantage anyway since he hasn’t learned normal blinking intervals. I figure my knowledge that the game is happening levels the playing field.
I kick his ass at staring contests. I’m doing it.
Let’s just list some games:
Monopoly Deal: The card version of Monopoly. Perhaps the greatest game ever created.
Monopoly: The board version of Monopoly Deal. A fundamentally misunderstood game that will probably someday be the source of adolescent tears.
Carcassonne: Each tile has features, such as part of a castle, a road, or a monastery, and you use these tiles to assemble a map, gaining points through actions like completing a city or closing a road. You never make the same map twice, which makes this the most aesthetically pleasing game on the list.
Settlers of Catan: The game that makes LARPing and imperialism cool.
Chronology: A card game in which you collect cards by guessing where along your timeline events occurred. You might think I’d be good at it, but I suck.
Pandemic: A collaborative game in which players work together to beat the game, which is trying to infect the planet with an apocalyptic pandemic. Lindsay and I played this a lot in COVID, ironically.
Wizard: A trick-taking card game that throws in jesters and wizards to ruffle things up. When you play a wizard, you get to scream “Wizard” in a wizard voice, which is a key perk to the game.
Wingspan: Collect birds, lay eggs, harvest food — are you a bird yourself or some kind of bird whisperer? Who can say!?
Asshole: A drinking card game that’s fun for the whole family.
Okay, cya later. Happy Halloween!
LOL, and don’t forget that Rummy game with tiles— my favorite!