Musical Chairs

Nobody plays musical chairs any more. Do people under the age of 8 even play it any more? I certainly haven't seen them playing it and they wouldn't appreciate it if they did. Why are more adults not playing musical chairs? There's nothing about it that's inherently juvenile. And lots of adults play even simpler games. If people are willing to spend hours playing Klondike alone, or this, they should certainly be willing to play a round of musical chairs.

I think the reason musical chairs has been cast as a children's game is that it requires a lot of players. Small children frequently hang around together all day, often under the supervision of a referee (or "teacher") and seldom have any very good ideas of what they'd rather do instead. It is very hard however, to bring together more than half a dozen adults with the same goals in mind. They all have their own ideas of what would be more fun, believe me. And six people is not nearly enough for a good game of musical chairs.

I think that a really good game of musical chairs would involve at least two dozen people. Then you can wind up with actual confusion among the two or three people who are still standing about where the last chairs are. Just imagine. Good times. Of course, musical chairs would be that much more fun with hundreds, or even thousands of people -- but it will never happen.