Editor,

Here’s a game you can play with your family and friends over the holidays. You just need a piece of paper and a pencil. At least three players are required. Each player is asked to create a new holiday to be named after a historical person of their choice. When the selections are made, and secretly written on each player’s paper, go around the circle and have each player disclose who their new holiday would celebrate and why. If any players name the same person to celebrate, they get a point. Keep this up until you’re all exhausted and then add up the points. He who has the most points wins. Simple.

Let’s do an imaginary round. Uncle Ned goes first. He picks Carl Sagan for inspiring so many people’s interest in astronomy. Then Aunt Lisa goes. She picks Harriet Tubman for her fight against slavery. Cousin Tom goes next. He picks Osceola for his resistance to the forced relocation of the Seminole people from Florida. Next, Cousin Ed chooses John Prine for his ability to tell musical stories with humor and grace.

The oldest grandchild, Mary, picks Greta Thunberg, but since Greta has not passed away yet, Mary gets another choice, and chooses Mark Twain for the magic of his story telling. The younger grandchild, Peter, picks Major General Smedley Darlington Butler for his valor in battle and his honesty about the tragic racket of war. Grandma Millie, the last in the circle, picks Vasil Arkhipov for saving the world. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 he refused to authorize the firing of a nuclear torpedo from a Russian sub, which very likely would have started World War III.

Even though nobody got any points, we all had fun, and learned a bit more about each other.

Verrall Hoover

Langley