Princess Bride Revisited

Last Christmas various members of my family mused that they rarely attended parties with other adults only -- ones that did not include kids' menus and games and decorations and Wii competitions. Once, one couple said, they HAD gone to a party where no Little Persons were included, and they wistfully described how nice it had been, for a change. So the Hero and I offered to host such a party. We all eagerly looked forward to a quiet, mature dinner gathering in the spring.

And so it was that last weekend, with babysitters procured and weather cooperating, we held the Princess Bride Revisited party, complete with shrieking eels, giants, poison, blindfolds, and even the Mafia.

The idea for this theme was sparked by the Hero's and my interest in the now-25 year old movie, which we knew our guests also enjoyed, and by our inability, despite our best intentions, to come up with any sort of actual mature theme for the gathering.

The theme also lent itself to interesting food ideas and activities, and thanks to the movie's ardent following on the web, we did not have to come up with too many original ideas.*

The Fire Swamp featured prominently in the menu, as did -- inconceivable! -- chocolate:

Fire swamp chili
Lightning sand hummus
Vengeance veggies
Pizza of Unusual Size
Miracle Max's miracle truffles, er, pills
Man in Black Dessert, consisting of brownies, chocolate ice cream chocolate chips, and hot fudge
Tums (these were unplanned, but perhaps not surprising)

Of course we also watched the movie, albeit without the sound off for a couple of run-throughs. It may very well be a record for the greatest number of times the movie has been watched consecutively with no sound, although there were subtitles. Not that most of us needed them, as we could, and often do, recite lines at random yet appropriate times. Only one Female Relative, who was not as familiar with the movie, paid careful attention to the subtitles, fearful there might be a trivia game later and that she would be found wanting.

On about the fourth time through the movie we finally turned the sound on. This was prompted by the distress of one Male Relative who insisted that the little popping fire things in the Fire Swamp had a proper name, which none of us could recall. We learned that these were called fire spurts, which regrettably were not represented in the menu.

We played several games, all of which involved hearty discussions of rules and exceptions to rules that probably took more time than the actual playing did. The evening ended with a rousing game of Mafia, which, although not strictly** part of the movie, nevertheless seemed to fit the theme of the evening -- that is to say, mature. Much good-natured offing occurred during this game, and although the rules may have been a little bent, and many reminders given to offed players that the dead may not speak, in the end we all survived.

Which is, of course, one of the themes of the movie. Right after "maturity."

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*None, in fact. Interested individuals we know personally also were eager to give us suggestions, which, again, greatly helped cut down on the amount of thinking we had to do. This allowed us to concentrate on the more important matters relating to the party, like whether or not we should blindfold our guests during the iocane powder "Battle of the Wits*** " (yes).

**Or at all.

***or "Battle of Chance," as one participant described it. Wits, chance. Whatever.