P.M.A.A.S

Have any of you ever played the board game Balderdash?

It's a game of bluffing, guessing and just making stuff up in general. It's quite a lot of fun, actually. I seldom win, but I enjoy playing.

The game starts with someone ("The Reader") rolling the dice to selct a category. The person who rolled the dice then draws a card from the deck and reads from the appropriate category. There are five categories, and each category requires the other players, armed with pencil and paper, to answer differently.

In the version I've played, one of the categories is Words. The players are given an obscure word from the Dictionary. If they actually know the answer, they can write that down. If they don't know the answer, they make something up. Each person writes their answer down secretly, and gives their piece of paper to "The Reader".

"The Reader" then reads off all the answers that were turned in, including the correct answer which is written on the card they drew. It is then up to the players to guess which answer they heard is the correct answer.

If you knew what the Word actually meant, and wrote down the correct answer, you get a certain number of points. If you guess wrong, of course, you get no points. If someone guesses that what you wrote was the correct answer, you get a point. The points are kept track of by playing pieces moving along a track on the board. First one to the end of the track is the winner.

Other categories--

Names. You're given the name of somebody from History, usually someone pretty obscure. You have to guess or make up what they were famous for.

Dates. You're given a date in History (i.e., March 7, 1911). You guess or make up what happened on that date.

Movie Titles. You're given the name of a movie (for example, "Havana Cabana"). You try to guess the plot, or make up what the movie is about.

The final category is Initials. "The Reader" gives a set of initials--S.P.A.N.K., for example. You guess what the letters stand for or, if you don't know, you make up an answer ("Society for the Preservation of Adult Naughty Kids").

As you can see by the title of this post, I've listed a set of initials. Go ahead and guess what they stand for. (Some of you, I'm sure, already know.) I'd probably make up an answer such as The Papaya, Mango And Apricot Store.

Okay, now you know why I seldom win.

The correct answer is nothing that esoteric. It stems directly from the recent Royal Wedding, the lovely sister of the bride, and the beautiful dress she wore as Duchess Catherine's Maid of Honor.

The dress was stunning, as is she. But apparently, her role as Maid of Honor involved some stretching and bending, causing her to stretch against the fabric, resulting in photos like this--much to the delight and heartfelt appreciation of, oh, let's just say "certain members of the viewing public".

Just how appreciative were they? There is now a Facebook page devoted to her....or maybe that should be, to her bum.

And now you know what the initials stand for. Click on the picture above if you need a closer look.