(ThatKidInTheCorner :: Or We Can Just Call It Beer Pong)

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August 8, 2006

Or We Can Just Call It Beer Pong

Reconsidering Drinking Game Nomenclature In Light Of The Recent Unpleasantness

As lovely as the summer in C@L has been (and it really is pretty spectacular), I must report that I remain somewhat wistful in re: missing the East Coast summer party circuit, a circuit which traditionally kicks off with the Meetings and continues throughout the summer, typically with stops in Jersey, the Belmont, the beach on Long Island, and sometimes even a mission to Boston.

This past weekend was the annual mission to Bay Shore, Long Island, certainly one of the traditional highlights of the summer. As I was cogitating and ruminating in re: the Bay Shore mission, I couldn't help but take a moment to reflect on one of the weekend's core activities (and I'm not even talking about the booze luge): Beirut (click here for the wikipedia entry on Beirut the drinking game).

And that's really what got me to thinking.

This is allegedly from the 'Jersey' shore

That is, given current events, we probably should discretely shed the "Beirut" moniker and adopt the more, ahem, neutral (and considerably less insensitive) "Beer Pong." In retrospect, Beirut was probably never the most sensitive of names for a drinking game (and certainly lacked the techno-dystopian panache of "Robopound"), but it never really seemed that awkward.

But these days? Yikes. I can only imagine the sort of seriously insensitive trash-talking that might result from only a few rounds of the game: "Comin' atcha like the Israeli Air Force!"; "Take that, transportation infrastructure!"; "We just displaced the population of your back line of cups -- send 'em to the refugee camps!" Not good. Not good.

Of course, according to Wikipedia, this change in drinking-game nomenclature need only impact the northeastern section of the United States; turns out the rest of the country just calls in Beer Pong. I think this might be the moment that settles the Beirut-v-Beer Pong debate once and for all -- and hopefully as quietly and politely as possible.

Thus, be it resolved that from here on out, I shall refer to the game where one tosses the ping-pong balls at the half-filled cups of beer across the table as "beer pong." I understand that there might exist other games that also use this name, but I'm willing to trade some occasional confusion for an attempt at greater geopolitical sensitivity in my drinking-games vocabulary.

(Though of course it goes without saying that "Beer Pong" is intrinsically a soft game. In fact, all drinking games not called "Robopound" are intrinsically soft and, as such, are only appropriate for scenarios where Robopound is somehow not possible or scalable. I might offer a special dispensation to sandstorm, but if you're good enough, sandstorm really isn't much fun (mostly because you don't lose frequently enough), whereas Robopound can punish even the most skilled of players. Robopound: The Drinking Game Of Kings!)

Posted by thatkid at August 8, 2006 7:53 PM under The Papers

Comments

So, what do you recommend we call the game with the paddles (best played with their handles broken off)?? But fully agree with you on the larger point - Robo Slam is exponentially the better game, especially on an ounces/minute basis. I don't get how people justify Beer Pong (nee Beirut) unless they secretly don't really like to drink.

Posted by: thegeneral at August 9, 2006 7:10 PM

did someone from the team write that wikipedia entry for robopound? too funny.
anyway. I can't remember how I found your blog, but I did. It's very different from your weekend page writing--but I do enjoy your book reports. when I read the post about your friend in malawi, it reminded me of this great book I read about Africa called "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight." You should check it out. It's a memoir about a woman who grew up in Malawi and her descriptions of Africa are breathtaking.
anyway, keep writing! I request some obnoxious midget jokes, please. Or at the very least something inappropriate. you are so nice and polite and grown-up sounding. it makes me feel old. the team can't grow up. they just can't.
--jessi (from Princeton. I think you know who I am, if you don't, then it's embarrassing that I think you do)

Posted by: jessi at August 10, 2006 7:21 PM

For some nice images of Beirut see: http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001142.html

And as we've discussed, we called it Beirut in Cali too, and the game with paddles is Beer Pong. You know, the one where you routinely have to pound your whole beer.

Posted by: micah at August 11, 2006 12:48 PM

Hello hello to the commenters! A pleasure to have you on board! Many thanks for reading and commenting!

Also, is anyone else as horrified/ impressed as I am by the cottage industry that seems to have sprung up around drinking games and drinking-game-related products?

What a world we live in.

Posted by: thatkid at August 20, 2006 10:24 PM

At UVA Law, people called Beirut "beer pong," but told people from out of town "beer pong is what we call Beirut here. I don't know why we call it beer pong here, but we do." So most people knew it originally as Beirut from their pre-law school days. Nobody played the game with the paddles, so there was no confusion about that.

Posted by: JackAss at August 22, 2006 9:15 PM

August 8, 2006

Or We Can Just Call It Beer Pong

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