Tombstone Blues
I’ve got five empties at my feet waiting to destroy James’ night, but I get distracted midway through his turn and only get to drop one empty on his spinning quarter. We were playing Landmines, but it might as well be called Tombstone Blues.
The goal of the game is a bit elusive because there really is no winner, but rather one loser and a variable amount of people who did not lose. The game requires one participant to transfer a small amount of beer from their can to a cup. Next, they spin a quarter on the table, drink the beer in the cup, place the cup on the table and grab the quarter before it stops spinning. If the quarter goes dead, falls off the table, or can’t cleanly grab the quarter, they go again. If they complete all their necessary tasks the quarter is passed to the next participant and so on and so forth.
Landmines becomes difficult when people finish their cans of beer via transferring enough it during their designated turns or by drinking from the can during others’ turns. Once someone has an emptied can they are allowed to slam it on the quarter during another participant’s turn. The quarter is removed from underneath the can, the person forced to go again while the can stays on the table for the rest of the game. If anyone spins the quarter and it hits any of the empties placed placed on the table they have to go again.
As the game goes on more empties are available to everyone and the table becomes flooded with cans making the prospects of successfully spinning the quarter without incident increasingly less likely. Which brings me back to the goal of the game…
The game usually plays out in a manner which causes one player to have a turn that consists of 20+ attempts, which can mean upwards of 3 beers in a single turn. In cases such as this it behooves the player to prepare a hole to get sick in. I wonder if Dylan ever played Landmines? No, probably not, but this notion distracted me enough to miss my opportunity to make James rather uncomfortable. James can thank him later.
Amazon: Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Amazon: Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (33 1/3)
