Anne Frank is Spunky

Last night was New Year's Eve, and like most people my age, I stayed in and played games with a few friends. Then I fell asleep around 12:30. Wild times in Brooklyn, indeed.

Actually, though, the night was completely and utterly fantastic. I had a very brief tinge of regret regarding not pursing any wild plans (like the hot tub party I hear went down at Roberta's in Bushwick), but this passed quickly and immediately upon being presented with a platter of Nora's bacon and brown sugar wrapped cheese stuffed jalapeno peppers. Take a moment to read that again...OK. They were otherworldly, ethereal, miraculous. I'm not sure I knew what happiness was until eating 15 or so of these delights. And then Nora produced a crock pot simmering with homemade pulled pork. Glory be!

The real takeaway, however, involved a game called Apples to Apples. I'd never heard of it, and confess to being rather leery at first. It didn't sound like much fun at first glance. Oh, how I was wrong.

It occurs to me much too late that the brilliance and majesty of Apples to Apples may be impossible to actually describe. This could very well be a classic case of you really had to be there. Suffice to say that Apples to Apples affords a phenomenal glance into the human psyche, and given the right players and mindset, provides a glimpse into the human brain that makes a Rorschach test look like an inkblot. So to speak.

Damn, I'm really not explaining this well...let me try this: in Apples to Apples, a card is placed down on the table. This card contains a single word or concept: "Stylish", "Shiny", "Sexy", etc. The players then look at their 7 cards in hand, and select a card which best exemplifies the concept card. For example, you might play "Cindy Crawford" for "Sexy." Then the judge picks the best match. And that's it.

Sounds boring, right? But it is PHENOMENAL. And here's why: because every so often someone will play a card so exceptionally, fantasmagorically brilliant, a card just so indisputably "right" that even if you're in competition (and thus want that card to lose), you've just gotta give props. It's like working on some crappy watercolor of the sunset and then Van Gogh sets up an easel right next to you. Know what I mean?

And so without further ado, my favorite memory of the game: the concept card is "Spunky". Players play their cards. Cards are overturned one by one. Most are commonplace, unimaginative, rather basic interpretations of "spunky" (including my own). And then the last card is turned:

"Anne Frank"

I admit there was half a second when my first reaction was to scoff. "Anne Frank? What the hell is that?" And then it hit me, the unadulterated brilliance of playing "Anne Frank" for "Spunky." It was like an advanced alien life form had entered the game, seeing angles my bourbon-drenched human brain could barely contemplate.

Anne Frank is downright fucking spunky. Holy shit. I honestly can't think of anything spunkier.