Occasionally a magazine rolls in that’s just a treat from front to back. The recent issue of Tin House is themed “Games People Play,” and the editors have cultivated a fresh, fun collection of writing on games, from Blake Eskin’s foray into “The Seriously Fun World of German Board Games” to Michelle Wildgen’s dissection of the seemingly complicated card game Sheepshead.
My personal favorite is Henry Alford’s “Fun Is What,” a hilarious look at the tradition of parlor games. Alford heralds the old form of revelry, introducing a few games and their instructions and imagining how an evening might pan out for two fictitious couples as they play such classics as Hot Cockles, Ha!, and The Game of Trussed Fowls.
Source: Tin House
Congratulations to Tin House, which is nominated for a 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for best writing.