Things I Learned at Bingo

We played with two bingo cards, which was a lot of fun. If you had the number and letter called on both of your cards then you had to yell "double-dauber" followed by the name of a person in the bar. That person would then have to take a drink. It was Claire's birthday, so there were a lot of "double dauber Claires" throughout the evening.

Here are all the different patterns we played over the course of two hours. It was a lot of fun to play a bunch of smaller, shorter games, which made me wonder if we're planning to play one long game of bingo or play several shorter ones? I kind of like the idea of several shorter games that could potentially correspond to different themes or moments from Dr. G's life that we want to highlight, and would give us natural, interstitial moments for other content.

- 5 any way
- 5 on both cards, any way
- Horizontal, diagonal, vertical on three separate cards
- Four corners
- 2 Bs, 2 Os
- Postage stamp - block of 4 in upper right corner
- Block of 4 in any corner
- Black out: Call a number - if it’s even - block out all even numbers, if it’s odd, black out all odd numbers. Then you play till someone gets a blackout.
- Crazy 6 - 3 number on the top row 3 number on the bottom row but they don’t have to touch if they don’t want to
- Crazy 8 - all your numbers that end in 8 are free. First eight numbers wins (No free space)
- Game for the losers - if the caller calls a number and it is on your card, flip it over. Last person with a card up is the biggest loser

When someone got a bingo, everyone had to chant "bingo dance, bingo dance, bingo dance," and the winner had to do a little dance.

For one round you had to say "Bingo, Bango, Bongo" when you got a bingo.

This made me wonder what you need to say if you get a bingo during

Dr. G's Bingo Extravaganza.

3.) "B-1 With the Universe"

The caller would make little jokes and puns about number and letter combinations as he called. And there were also call-and-response moments for certain number and letter combinations. Here are a few of my favorites:

- When B-10 was called: everyone had to say, "Beeeeeeeee Teeeeyyyyyyyynn"
- When B-11 was called: everyone had to say, "Be Eleven, Be, Be, Eleven"
- When B-12 was called: the caller commented, "that's a good vitamin"
- When B-1 was called: the caller implored us all to, "be one with the universe"
- When G-22 was called: everyone had to pretend to be a train: "Gee Choo Choo!"
- When O-63 was called: everyone had to sing "Oh Sixty Three, Oh Sixty Three" to the tune of "O Christmas Tree"

I loved these call-and-response moments, and think there's some great possibilities for us to create similar moments of participation and silly pun-age during the

The daubers were so fun! My friend and I each had a

which I feel we must have at the

Would it be too on-the-nose for them to all be red and green?

There was a prize chest at the front, and winners could choose between a wrapped prize or a drink at the bar. One of the prizes was a box of Crunch 'n Munch caramel popcorn:

This got me thinking about our conversation earlier this week about prizes. I wonder if some of the prizes could be a particular experience during the Bingo Extravaganza (you get to sing jingle bells, or guest judge the Aquaman look alike contest, or have your picture taken with Mr. and Mrs. Claus). And then I do think some of the prizes can be as simple as a box of Munch 'n Crunch. I loved the idea of Christmas cookies from our meeting earlier this week. And I also started wondering: what are Dr. G's favorite treats? Her favorite candy? Maybe those could be prizes, too?