Are You There, Moriarty Parlor Game: Having Fun During COVID-19

Are You There, Moriarty Parlor Game: Having Fun During COVID-19

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has meant spending a lot of time with your family, roommate, and other members of your household. And that should be "quality time."  Parlor games are a great way to interact with each other.

Gather the Household: Make some snacks and beverages and gather your household family/roommates.  Maybe some Sherlock Holmes inspired drinks: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/sherlock-holmes-cocktails-2009

Number of Players: entire household

Objective: To remain in the game as long as possible.  Have fun watching the humorous spectacle.  

Game Rules:

1) Set Up- In an open space, select and blindfold the first two players.  Each player is given a rolled-up newspaper as a "sword."  Both players will lie on the ground head-to-head about 3 feet apart.  

Variation A: Instead of a newspaper sword, replace with a pool noodle, bananas, pillows, stuffed animals, etc.  Anything soft, safe and funny.

Variation B: Add distance to increase difficulty and humorous situations.  

2) To Start Game - The first player ready will say, "Are you there, Moriarty?"  When ready, the second player will reply, "The Great Game!"

3) Sword Fight! - Using the rolled-up newspapers, each player will attempt to hit the other player.  The first player is eliminated and another member of the household replaces them.

Variation A: To prolong the game, make it a best-of-five game.  After each hit, household members on the sideline will place and spin players to restart match.  

4) Scoring - Tally wins on paper.  Or a chalkboard if you have it.  The Grand Champion will have the most tallies.  Consider a prize to the winner.  It can be something small, like a candy bar.  Or something more high stakes, like loser has to do the winners chores the next day.

Variation A: Add categories like: longest winning streak, funniest win and/or loss, most swings, etc.  And prizes for everyone! 

AND DON'T FORGET TO HAVE FUN! And, please feel free to contact if you have any questions or suggestions!

More Having Fun During COVID-19

https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/covid-19coronavirus-resources.html

UNVACCINATED

Health and Safety Considerations for gathering:
1) Wear a mask and practice social distancing (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html)

2) No indoor activities
3) No sharing bathrooms
4) Wash hands before and after gathering. Don't touch your face.
5) Bring your own food, snacks, drinks, and utensils.
6) Do not attend if you have asthma, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, have/survived cancer, or 50+ year old.
7) Do not attend if you have or have had Coronavirus or showing symptoms (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).

8) Limit attendance to a few people. 

9) Talk with everyone about comfort levels. Expect and allow non-participation and last minute cancellations.

VACCINATED (2 weeks after final dose)
Health and Safety Considerations for gathering:

1) Wear a mask and practice social distancing in public (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html)

2) Indoor activities safe with a few vaccinated people.  No indoor activities with unvaccinated people

3) No sharing bathrooms

4) Wash hands before and after gathering. Don't touch your face.

5) Bring your own food, snacks, drinks, and utensils.

6) Do not attend if you have asthma, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, have/survived cancer, or 50+ year old.

7) Do not attend if you have or have had Coronavirus or showing symptoms (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).

8) Limit attendance to a few people. 

9) Talk with everyone about comfort levels. Expect and allow non-participation and last minute cancellations.

Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.

For more information or custom order, please visit:

Store: MikeKrausArt.etsy.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeKrausArt

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/MikeKraus/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikekrausart

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mkraus

Twitter: http://twitter.com/MikeKrausBlog

Flight Behavior

Flight Behavior, 2014

acrylic painting on canvas

8" x 10"

© copyright Mike Kraus

To purchase, please visit: https://www.etsy.com/listing/197718982/flight-behavior-original-acrylic?

"A small shift between cloud and sun altered the daylight, and the whole landscape intensified, brightening before her eyes.  The forest blazed with its own internal flame.  "Jesus," she said, not calling for help, she and Jesus weren't that close, but putting her voice in the world because nothing else present made sense.  The sun slipped out by another degree, passing its warmth across the land, and the mountain seemed to explode with light.  Brightness of a new intensity moved up the valley in a rippling wave, like the disturbed surface of a lake.  Every bough glowed with an orange blaze.  "Jesus God," she said again.  No words came to her that seemed sane.  Trees turned to fire, a burning bush.  Moses came to mind, and Ezekiel, words from Scripture that occupied a certain space in her brain but no longer carried honest weight, if they ever had.  'Burning coals of fire went up and down among the living creatures.

The flame now appeared to lift from individual treetops in showers of orange sparks, exploding the way a pine log does in a campfire when it's poked.  The sparks spiraled upward in swirls like funnel clouds.  Twisters of brightness against gray sky.  In broad daylight with no comprehension, she watched.  From the tops of the funnels the sparks lifted high and sailed out undirected above the dark forest.  

A forest fire, if that's what it was, would roar.  This consternation swept the mountain in perfect silence.  The air above remained cold and clear.  No smoke, no crackling howl.  She stopped breathing for a second and closed her eyes to listen, but heard nothing.  Only a faint patter like rain on leaves.  Not fire, she thought, but her eyes when opened could only tell her, 'Fire, this place is burning.'  They said, 'Get out of here.'  Up or down, she was unsure.  She eyed the dark uncertainty of the trail and the uncrossable breach of the valley.  It was all the same everywhere, every tree aglow...

...She was on her own here, staring at glowing trees.  Fascination curled itself around her fright.  This was no forest fire.  She was pressed by the quiet elation of escape and knowing better and seeing straight through to the back of herself, in solitude.  She couldn't remember when she's had such room for being.  This was not just another fake thing in her life's cheap chain of events, leading up to this day of sneaking around in someone's thrown-away boots.  Here that ended.  Unearthly beauty had appeared to her, a vision of glory to stop her in the road.  For her alone these orange boughs lifted, these long shadows became a brightness rising.  It looked like the inside of joy, if a person could see that.  A valley of lights, an ethereal wind.  It had to mean something."

-Excerpt by Barbara Kingsolver, "Flight Behavior." 1st ed. New York: Harper Collins, 2012 13-16. Print (http://www.kingsolver.com/books/flight-behavior.html)

This piece would work in a space that is light green, blue, yellow, beige or on wood.

For more information or custom order, please visit:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MikeKrausArt