Fun and Games. Chapter 1: Ice, Ice, Baby

Chapter 1: Ice, Ice. . . . . . baby.

Its called "Icing".

A practical joke game that was birthed at a major University in Virginia several months ago, probably in some frat guy's living room.

In a nutshell, Icing is where you and your crew (usually friends or coworkers) are members of an exclusive game where everyone involved is constantly trying to trick one another into peeping at bottles of Smirnoff Ice (below is a sidebar explaining what Smirnoff Ice is exactly, for those who are unfamiliar).

Smirnoff Ice: It’s a horrendous, vile alcoholic "

drink" that can be purchased virtually anywhere in the world for some reason. I don't know who decided that was a good idea... At any rate, SI is targeted specifically at young party-going ladies that don't particularly enjoy the taste of beer, a

nd can't afford mixed drinks. The game goes that if you can make one of your friends look directly at a full SI bottle, they MUST then take a knee right then and there, regardless of where "there" is, and chug the whole thing at once. We'll call the victim the Icee, and the perpetrator the Icer. The Icee can not stand until he or she has finished the bottle entirely. While the Icee is planted in Ice position chugging the vile drink, the Icer is expected to be laughing mercilessly, cracking jokes at the Icee's expense

and getting as much footage as possible.

The beauty of this game, besides making your friend drink this disgustingly sweet, aspartame-chucked sewage is the setup of the prank. The more elaborate the set up the better in my opinion, but a quick icing can be fun everyone now and then to keep your friends and co-workers in check.

The history of Icing doesn't go back further than 7-8 months, about as long as I've been gone. I hadn't heard of it until Alexis, one of the new teachers in my program told me about it a few weeks back. I LOVE the idea of this game so much that I have incorporated it in my daily life here in Thawangpha. In the past month I've "Iced" 5 of my friends on non-consecutive occasions, and look forward to icing more. Smirnoff Ice can be purchased at most 7-11s here in Thailand. Thanks multi-national corporations.

Here's a few of my victims:

Matt, 31 years old, 6'7" tall. A teacher at Pua School, the next town over.

Jesse, 25. English teacher at my school (Thawangphapittayakhom School). Teaches 7th, 8th, and 12th grade.

Dave, 23. English teacher at my school (Thawangphapittayakhom School). Teaches 9th and 11th grade.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 in my August Fun and Games segment, where I'll introduce the greatest outdoor game, Period. Its called Shaboozle. Intrigued yet?

Deuces.