I Wish I'd Thought Of That. Seriously.

When I saw a press release go by that appeared to be somebody selling a card game based on the "Shakespeare Insult Kit" my first thought was, "Really? Everybody does know that that's freely available on the net in like a hundred different forms, right? Apps and everything?"

Everybody knows how the game works, right? You get three columns of words that Shakespeare supposedly used, and you combine a random word from each column to produce a new insult like, "Thou loggerheaded knotty-pated scullian!" or "Thou goatish elf-skinned bum-bailey!"

I had to check it out. If nothing else I wanted to see how one would win such a game.

But it's not a game, it's a book! A very clever book. I wish I could get Amazon to show a picture from the inside (you can see that here), but the book is in 3 vertical sections representing the original columns, and you turn to random pages "flip book" style to create your insult. Each word even comes with its definition, which is a nice touch. Although it appears like the definition is on the back of each card, and I think maybe it should be  on the back of the preceding card so that when your word is on the right, the definition is on the left. Otherwise you have to flip back and forth.

It's a cute idea, a neat spin on an existing source of amusement, and probably a fun gift for Shakespeare fans. Wish I'd thought of it!