Scattergories On Christmas Eve
Scattergories is a game of categories and answers. You roll a letter and then there are lists that you have to fill out with answers that correspond to the letter that was rolled. At the end you compare answers giving a point for each original response that each person has given. So if you and I put down the same answer then neither one of us gets the point, etc. Anyway, that wasn’t the argument that went down on Christmas Eve.
Before I start, I will point out that nobody likes to play this game with me. I am the Scattergories Nazi. I will point out that there is a difference between a product name and a brand name. Anyway, I am not very lenient on the answers that are acceptable, but ultimately it has a democratic, majority rules system to determine whether someone gets the point or not. That would be great in most scenarios, accept when you are right and everyone else in the room is wrong. On Christmas Eve I was told I was wrong in a blind groupthink scenario where the entire family ganged up on me. The problem? They were wrong.
We rolled the letter J. The first category was “1. Things that are sticky.” Now I will give you a couple seconds to think of things that are sticky that start with the letter J. (Keep it clean.) Anyway, I said Jello. The room went nuts saying that “Jello isn’t sticky.” “You can eat finger jello without a problem.” Etc. Etc. I didn’t want to let it go, but eventually I had to. Now tell me, am I right or wrong? Jello is sticky isn’t it? My sister, brother, mother, father, brother-in-law and brother of my brother-in-law are all wrong, aren’t they?
Are you having trouble? Ok, here. Jello is sugar, flavoring and GELATIN. Right? Ok, so here is one of the entries for Gelatin in Dictionary.com.
- \Gel”a*tin\, Gelatine \Gel”a*tine\, n. [F. g['e]latine, fr. L. gelare to congeal. See Geal.] (Chem.) Animal jelly; glutinous material obtained from animal tissues by prolonged boiling. Specifically (Physiol. Chem.), a nitrogeneous colloid, not existing as such in the animal body, but formed by the hydrating action of boiling water on the collagen of various kinds of connective tissue (as tendons, bones, ligaments, etc.). Its distinguishing character is that of dissolving in hot water, and forming a jelly on cooling. It is an important ingredient of calf’s-foot jelly, isinglass, glue, etc. It is used as food, but its nutritious qualities are of a low order.
And for those who are still in doubt, the definition of the word GLUTINOUS.
- glu·ti·nous - Of the nature of or resembling glue; sticky.
There we have it folks. Craig 1, entire family ZERO. Moral of the story is do not play Scattergories with me.
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Jello is sticky in the same way Coke or grape juice is sticky. In its ready-to-eat state, it’s not particularly sticky, but if you dump it on the floor and don’t clean it up properly, it gets extremely sticky. We’ve done tests on this and virtually every other food here. Macaroni and cheese is sticky. Pudding is sticky. Hot dogs are sticky.
I think if I ate a bowl of Jell-O with my hands, I would have to wash my hands after because they would be sticky. I think this should be the litmus test for stickiness. Roasted Cashews, for example, are not sticky.
Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit for me. No arguments there.
Sorry, man, I have to disagree. As noted above, Jello, in it’s ready to eat form, is most definately NOT sticky, despite whatever Webster might have to say about the issue. Never trust childhood stars anyway.
When you eat jello out of a cup or say a bowl, is there jello on the bowl when you are finished? If you were to hold said bowl upside down would it or would it not fall out? Maybe larger pieces would fall, but many would STICK to the side of the bowl against gravity’s pull. Jello = Sticky
Just to help this all spiral completely into madness, the ratio of gelatin to water in the substance in question is relevant. With a lot of water, as in, for instance, the Jello used for Jello wrestling in the bars that Craig visits a lot, you get something closer to jelly, which is very sticky. Without as much water, as in, for instance, the Jello Macintoshes that were made at MIT this past year, it’s more like a soft, pliable rubber and is not sticky at all.
Mr C, good point. And we should add temperature to the mix. many things that are not sticky at 20c are very sticky at 100c. Frizen cheese, for example is not sticky. But melted cheese is very sticky. But let’s leave this out of it and assume “room temperature”.
I would imagine that all things in the universe fall into a room temperature stickiness category. Let’s put the scale on 1-10. 1 is sticky 10 is not sticky. Let’s think of some sticky things. Tar is sticky. Sap, Hair Gel. These are all sticky. We will reserve the “1″ ranking for things scientists come up with, and I will let all the things I just said be a “2″. On the other hand, Titanium is not sticky. It would be a 10. Solid concrete might be a 10 also.
So, where does Jello fit in? Well, on this universal scale, I would have to put room temperature jello at a 3 on the stickiness scale. I am ruling Craig correct here. Bing bing bing.
Perhaps you should have said Jello pudding pops! That should have been a safe choice and eliminated any confusion.
What, then, is sticky?
The question didn’t ask them to name something, beginning with J, that has a Stickiness Quotient of
3 seems a little bit generous. I can hold a cube of Jello in my hand, juggle it back and forth and whip it across the room without any residue remaining behind on my hands. I suppose it depends on how loosely we are interpreting the word sticky and what degree of stickyness is required for the answer to be valid. You can eat a bowl of just about anything and some of it will stick to the side of the bowl, cornflakes for instance, but does that make cornflakes sticky? Also too, gelatin in general may be sticky, but we are talking specifically about Jello Brand *tm* gelatin and the degree of stickiness we are associating with this particular brand. In addition, are we talking about the pre-made pre-packaged Jello gelatin, which you can on occasion successfully dump out of the little cup without any remaining, or homemade Jello where you control the parameters?
Janet Jackson can be very sticky.
Let’s also keep in mind that I didn’t say Finger Jell-O which is a different thing. It was specially formulated to be less sticky and more dense thus making it an acceptable finger food. Regular old run of the mill Jell-O on the other hand is the kind of concoction that cafeteria workers everywhere choose to serve with a serving of fruit lodged in the middle and also with a spoon for consumption. This, specifically, was the substance I was talking about. Finally, I will leave you with this question. Have you ever had problem drinking a Jell-O shot because the Jell-O wouldn’t come out of the cup it was served in? If the Jell-O tends to stick, well then you must acquit. The defense rests.
With your arguments, I could say “juniper” as I can imagine a sticky juniper. I could argue for one too. And I would hold in contention Janet Jackson… maybe she IS sticky. Parts of her are, unless, as we suspect, she is plastic. How about “jungle”… I would describe a jungle as sticky.
On the Stickiness Quotient Scale (SQS), yes, generally less than 5 is sticky and greater than five is not so sticky. 5 is arguable either way and would cause most problems.
You know, they do this in Geology with hardness. They have a scale. It’s called the Mohs Hardness Scale. 1 is talc and 10 is diamond. So if I asked for a “C” mineral that was hard, you could say “corundum” but not “calcite” as determined by where the rest on the scale.
You can’t dismiss my scale just because Stickiness Studies have not advanced as far as Hardness Studies.
If they asked for something hard, I could say “conundrum” - a difficult, or hard, problem. Because I’m that kind of jerk.
I remember doing the hardness scale thing in science class in 6th grade. Clearly, a stickiness scale is needed so we can teach this sort of thing to elementary school students and avoid further yuletide board game confrontations.
Also, if you were to whip a cube of Jell-O across the room, some surface in your home - I’m guessing a wall, but I suppose it depends on how well you throw - would be stained some sticky residue. I guarantee it.
The question itself is flawed. As stated previously, nearly everything under the right conditions is sticky. Metal may not be sticky, and neither is my skin, but if I heat it up to 1000 degrees and sear my flesh with it there will be some definite sticking going on.
On the stickiness scale I would have to rate Janet Jackson a 4 and Jell-O more like a 5.
What about being in “jail” or a “juvenile detention center?” Those could both be sticky situations.
I think it is safe to say that under certain circumstances, Jell-O is sticky. Perhaps we should abandon the discussion of the various physical states of Jell-O for a consideration of the psychological and political forces at work in the Lyndall Scattergories game. Let’s start with an hypothetical sample game where each of the Lyndall participants was playing with a group of anonymous competitors. I’ll hypothesize that if, say, Anonymous Competitor D submitted “Jell-O” as a “J” example of “stickiness,” a majority of the Lyndalls would allow it. They might roll their eyes a little, but they’d let it go. Now add in The Craig Factor. There is some chance that Craig has been a cheeky knowitall smartass in family games for many years, and that one or more of the Lyndalls are now “out to get him.” What are the chances that enough Lyndalls were “out to get” Craig, and given the scientific ambiguity of The Stickiness Question, they took the opportunity to try to give Craig the business? (This happened to me in a game of Scruples once and I won’t play that stupid game any more.)
Justin, you are right, the stickiness of Jello projectiles cannot be disputed. Loved that comment about “yuletide board game confrontations” by the way, classic!
I think Chris have hit it on the head. The Craig factor was at work and the family ganged up on me. Regardless of whether anyone thinks Jell-O is sticky, I was crucified for past transgressions in snarky and smartypants behavior. I can’t say that I blame them necessarily, just that I was right and they were wrong. As a know-it-all this is my response.
I may have put on a few pounds, but I’m not sure I’m plural quite yet.
I see we need more scales… first, there is the Smarmyness Factor for Yuletide Boardgame Confrontations scale (SFYBC). Now, all things being relavent, Craig may have a SFYBC of 3 (not very smarmy) but to his family, it could be like a 7. “The Craig Factor” as Mr C have pointed out will add to this. If we were playing Monopoly, it would be “The Justin Factor”.
Then we have the Plurality Scale (PS) 1 being single and 10 being plural. Mr C and his many alternate egos come in about a 6 or 7, making him mostly plural.
Finally, on the Jarataur Scale factor of Scales, I am currently sitting on a 9, almost completely scaly.