CONVERSATIONAL UNO - AMERICA'S LEADING TALKING GAME BASED ON A CARD GAME RELATED TO CRAZY EIGHTS

As you may know, in the card game Uno someone puts a card (with a color and a number) on a discard pile and the next person must put down a card that matches the previous card somehow...It could have the same number but a different color or the same color but a different number.

If you've never played Conversational Uno, here's how it's done. One person tells a story. Say someone tells a story such as "I went to Marine World/Africa USA on a school field trip and while riding an elephant, the creature reached up with its trunk and stole the Oakland A's cap that was on my head."

The next person clockwise in a circle then tells a story that matches some part of the previous story. It could be a story about a school field trip or an elephant or the A's or a baseball cap or a theft.

The card game Uno has various wild cards, so feel free to assign those randomly, because someone is going to be reminded of a story about say, sky diving and be desperate to tell it, even though it's been two or three stories since sky diving was mentioned.

This game has been tested for safety at the Mount Hermon Writers Conference and various youth groups. Enjoy.

A Review of "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown and Company - 2013)

Reading Gladwell’s description of the Biblical tale of David’s battle with Goliath, I began to have a bit of trepidation about where the book would led. This, along with the story of Noah’s ark, is one of the most commonly told story in Sunday School classes and often many details of the story are omitted or smoothed over for young ears (David chopping off Philistine’s head with his own story isn’t usually exactly highlighted.)

I have enjoyed all of Gladwell’s other books, so I wasn’t concerned that the book would not be well written or interesting.

But I was concerned that Gladwell was going to turn a story about a boy’s faith in God into a story primarily about tactics. He points out that ancient armies often divided into cavalry, infantry and shooters (with slings or bows), and that infantry man would often lose out to a man well trained with a sling at a distance. He also speculates that Goliath’s great height may suggest a disease or aliment that would have put him in to less than fit fighting shape. These are reasonable suppositions, but what does the story really have to say or teach if we leave out the element of faith in God.

Fortunately, Gladwell’s book is not lacking in the vital spiritual element. He obviously was concerned about issues of faith. In fact, in the acknowledgments, he credits his “theological consultant, Jim Loepp Thiessne of the Gathering Church in Kitchener, Ontario”. He prefaces each section of the book with an appropriate passage of Scripture.
And most significantly, he presents stories of people from history and the present whose battles with giants relied greatly on their faith in God. From the last century, he highlights people of faith (including Fred Shuttlesworth, the “swearing preacher”) in the civil rights movement who mobilized churches to do God’s work against segregation. He highlights the work of the Huguenots in France who saved thousands of Jews from the Vichy (and Nazi regiemes.) And ordinary people like Wilma Derksen who obeyed God’s call to forgive the man who murdered her daughter.

The book is full of wonderful stories about people who took on odds that seemed too great to achieve personal success, but more often fought for the good of others. Not only does the book give a perceptive look at the battle of Elah, it also provides many illustrations of people living out the Sermon on the Mount.

I believe this is my 3rd appearance in the SF Chronicle...

First it was an article I was paid for, then a letter to the editor and now a letter to Mick. It doesn't seem to be going uphill....http://www.sfgate.com/movies/askmicklasalle/article/Ask-Mick-LaSalle-Ray-Liotta-no-more-Mr-Bad-4924317.php

Review of "Never Go Back" by Lee Child (a Jack Reacher Novel - 2013)

There are some things that Child does better than anyone else writing today. One of those things is keeping the reader turning the pages. For me, no one is better today at ending a chapter with a hint or clue that makes me anxious to answer a many mystery.
But ultimately, his Reacher character is not as deep a guy as Child seems to think he is and he can't ever really change. So when this story opens with some intriguing possible changes in Reacher's life... (mini-spoiler) Will he rejoin the army? Find true love? Be a dad? Of course not, because he must continue as a wanderer who rights wrongs. And there is a certain satisfaction in the formula. But most of the novels are like very well made episodes of "Have Gun Will Travel". Like going to In and Out Burger, a good, filling meal, but never very different from the last time you went.

And I small complaint about how Child continues to deal with the hospitality industry. In books before, he has portrayed night auditors as crooked fellows who gladly sell empty rooms off the books to take all the money for themselves. Not happening with me, Reacher. This time, he goes to a motel in West Virginia and pays three twenty dollar bills for two $30 motel rooms. The clerk doesn't ever ask for a credit card or for a deposit or I.D. which leaves the guest free to steal the TVs. And even in a hotel, they only take a $50 deposit? No protection from theft or room damage. Oh well, most readers, rightly, don't care. They probably shouldn't, the important thing is keeping the plot moving, which Child does well.

Eleanor Rigby in Prose: a Review of "Nine Inches" by Tom Perrotta (St. Martin's Press - 2013)

Okay, let’s deal with the title first. It’s the title of one of ten short stories in a collection. On the cover it is used for a naughty pun, but in the story it is the distance Jr. High couples are to keep between themselves during a school dance. Every story in the book is about the distance between people, every story in the book is about loneliness in one way or another.

Perrotta uses both first and third person forms, but each story focuses on a someone who feels separated from the world, by circumstances beyond control (for example, an head injury that rips a high school player off the football team) and some circumstances foolishly chosen (adultery makes more than one appearance.)

Though I enjoyed parts of Perrotta’s last couple of novels (“The Abstinence Teacher” and “The Leftovers”) and I appreciated his bold attempts to deal with religion in our culture, the tone and substance always seemed off to me (an Evangelical Christian.) With the exception of “The Chosen Girl” (a fine, sad piece) this collection eschews religion and focuses back on the suburbia that he has covered so well in “Joe College”, “Election” and “Little Children”.

Perhaps what I love most about Perrotta is his willingness to dive into the world of adolescence, from the perspective of parents, teachers and, of course, young people as well (capturing the voice of youth quite well for someone who’s getting up there… he’s 52 at publication date, a couple of months older than me.)

Sex (occasionally with a bit of graphic detail) is often an aspect of these tales, but rarely does it bring people together. There are also scattered outbursts of violence from characters whose frustration, boredom or impotence seeks an outlet, but nothing brutal enough to move the book to the Mystery or Crime fiction section of the bookstore.
Ultimately, several of the stories do migrate to glimpse of hope that come when someone remembers the good that can be done with a kind word or a tender touch.

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned that as always, Perrotta is funny. Don’t expect Comedy Central, but I did laugh out loud at times. Though you might be just as likely to fine yourself a little teary eyed.

In Defense of the Same Old Thing (a Review of Susan Cain’s book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking” – Broadway Books, 2013)

In a book full of studies and personal anecdotes, the most heartbreaking are those of parents who don’t understand the personality and disposition of their child and force them into awkward, even damaging situations.

For instance, parents of an introverted child, new to a neighborhood asking their daughter on her birthday to take cupcakes to children she doesn’t know in the hope she will make new friends and learn a lesson about giving. Those misguided parents in this example aren’t in the book, I’m talking about my own family and my poor, introverted daughter.

I know this technique is a bit tired and hackneyed (“And that person….Was Me!”) but in my defense, Cain uses the same technique in the book. But I think everyone, extroverts and introverts will find themselves in these pages and better understand their family, school and work relationships.

One of the most interesting thing I found coming from studies of introverts is the idea that most introverts are not just shy about new people, they tend to dislike new things in general. They tend to prefer taking their time getting to know new places and situations and prefer to study a few things in depth rather than many things superficially.

I was very pleased that Cain deals with the importance of these concepts in the church. There are churches geared to extroverts (loud, big mega-churches where everyone is expected to sing loud and hug the neighbor they don’t know) and churches geared for introverts (small liturgical congregations where silence has a place along with a consistent order of worship.) But if we believe the church should a place that, according to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 has “neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free”, than we probably should find a way that it includes introverts and extroverts.

Among the many fascinating studies mentioned in the book, I was very interested in a study of phone conversations. It was found that when introverts and extroverts talked on the phone, extroverts were much better at determining if the person they were talking to was happy or sad. But if introverts and extroverts were listening to two parties in a taped conversation, introverts were a little better at reading the mood.

Of course, there are strengths and weaknesses to all personality attributes, but we need to realize we need each other, learning to adapt and learn from each other. This book is a good place to start if you haven’t given these issues a lot of thought (this probably means you, fellow extrovert.)

A Review of "How to Pray When You're Pissed at God" by Ian Punnett (Harmony Press, 2013)

If the title of this book makes you angry, that’s okay. One of the main arguments of the book is that anger is a healthy emotion, if it is dealt with in a healthy way. So free to say, “I feel angry when I see vulgar language used in a religious context”. You know, say it in the phraseology that therapists use. What? Using the stilled jargon of psychiatry is sometimes not satisfying way to express anger? Yeah, well, that’s another argument that Ian Punnett makes in this short, but helpful book about prayer.
Though Punnett is ordained in the Episcopal Church and he writes in the acknowledgements that “the main intention of this book was to honor God” it is not strictly a Christian book. He wanted to write a book about the appropriateness and benefit of angry prayer for everyone, even atheists and agnostics. He cites medical studies that show that prayer and meditation are healthy and other studies that show healthy expressions of anger are healthy and argues that therefore anyone could benefit from expressing their anger through prayer.
I found it interesting that though he thinks angry prayers are helpful to all, he also mentions that Islam has no place for such prayers. The Koran notes Job was righteous, but doesn’t say anything about his railing against God. The angry Psalms are not a part of the Koran. But angry prayer is a rich part of the Jewish tradition and Punnett interview various rabbis that make that point.
Punnett also makes it clear that anger can be very unhealthy, in fact dangerous, when it is misdirected or is habitual. One of the reasons expressing anger in prayer is important is that it may allow us to move one from our anger. If we are angry about something that takes place in the workplace, it is not healthy to kick the dog or yell at our children or even kick the children and yell at our dog. The healthy response is to stand up for ourselves in a respectful manner at the workplace AND bring our anger before God who can handle it better than dogs and children.
One of the best features of the book is the use of the Psalms from Scripture as a model for praying out our anger. Punnett writes about an experience from his days as a hospital chaplain. A mother asked Punnett to help her son stuck in a hospital bed to “turn to God”. Punnett talked to the boy, and found that the boy was not thrilled with not sick and not being able to play with his friends and especially with the hospital needles. Punnett assured the boy that there were times Jesus wasn’t pleased with His situation either. He taught the boy the words, "Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?" (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) And the boy found strength in shouting out those words when he was given a shot (the nurses hated it.)
Punnett has a wonderful section where is reworked Psalms for people in different situations, such as “An Angry Prayer for Somebody Suffering with Depression During the Holidays” and “An Angry Prayer for a Victim of Bullying by the More Popular Kids”. I did think though that he overdoes it in using the violent language of the Psalms (the knocking the teeth out kind of stuff.) It makes sense for the angry prayers about street gangs and child abusers, but not so much for the angry prayers for those who cut you off in traffic or make campaign commercials.
Oh, and I wasn’t too keen on the title when I first saw it on the shelf, after reading the book I came to see that the “Pissed” was not gratuitous. Punnett makes that case that some pretty harsh language can be found in Scripture and that sometimes people need to pray freely without worrying about their vocabulary. I think he’s right when he says that God can take it.