Oh, yes. Initials.
Some people may already know this game.
On a piece of paper write the enitre alphabet vertically (down)
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
After that, take a book, magazine, newspaper or any other "thing" with sentences. Pick a sentence and write it next to the alphabet. For example if the sentence is "The quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog" it would look like this:
AT
BH
CE
DQ
ER
FE
GD
HF
IO
JX
KJ
LU
MM
NP
OS
PO
QV
RE
SR
TT
UH
VE
WL
XA
YZ
ZY
You only need 26 letters in the sentence. Make sure everyone has the same set of letters and then you have 15 minutes of quiet time where you come up with names of "famous" people to match the initials on the list. Some initials will be easy, others will be hard and there will be sets that don't have a name attached. The name can be anyone with some kind of noteriety or fame. The name can be real or fictional as long as it's a name. For example, if MB was on the list you could use Mrs. Butterworth (it's a name and many people know it). BB could be Betty Boop, JD could be John Deer and so on. Politicians, actors, notorious people (Joey Buttafucco), characters from books, plays or movies, all are valid as long as they have some kind of fame.
Some of the names from the list above could be:
AT Andy Taylor
BH Billy Holiday
CE Chris Evert
MM Mickey (or Minnie) Mouse
and so on. For K, P and Q you can use King, Prince/Princess or Queen (like King James or Queen Victoria or Prince Orloff from above). If there is a question about the person's level of fame we generally say that at least one other person in the room must be able to say "I know who that is". You can't use friends, neighbors or people you work with. Spelling is not an issue except the the first and last names must begin with the appropriate letter. If you have initials like MF you can use Michael J. Fox because the first and last name is the important part. That holds for any three word name like Brian Stokes Mitchell if BM were on the list.
After 15 minutes you begin reading the names on the lists and score the round.
You score based on the number of people coming up with names. If everyone gets the same name, for example if two people used Andy Taylor for AT then they would each get 5 points. If one came up with Andy Taylor and the other used Alice B. Toklas they would each get 10 points. If you are the only person to get a name (for example UH Uta Hagen) and no other person playing came up with a name you get 15 points. After all the names are read each person totals their score and the highest point total is the winner. Rodzinski won Round One and we tied on Round Two. It's great fun and really gets your brain working.
This is turning into a novella so I'll stop for now.
