Barack Obama made a reference this week to "lipstick on a pig" that was seized upon by the McCain camp as a veiled insult to Sarah Palin. Hogwash! Of course, over the summer the Obama camp had no qualms about distorting McCain's words to suggest that he wants to keep American troops in Iraq for 100 years. This is why I try to avoid watching to much campaign stuff.
The bright side of the pig controversy is that it inspired Mrs. Kronicle and I to dig out our Pig Mania game. I'm aware that many of my readers have not yet achieved my level of culutral sophistication so I thought I would take this post to aquaint you with Pig Mania.
The equipment includes the following:
The two pigs are placed into the "pig sty," shaken, and then tossed on to the table. Points are scored based on the way the pigs land. Should you roll a "pig out" ...
or a "makin' bacon" ...
... your turn ends and it goes to the next player. A "pig out" is when the two pigs are on their sides but not the same side. "Makin' bacon" is when the pigs are touching in any way. [Update: Codepoke reminds me that if you toss a "makin' bacon," you lose all your points for that round of tosses. I knew I'd miss something here.]
The objective is to score 100 points. Here is how the points are scored.
This is a" sider"; both pigs laying on the same side. Points = 1
The one on the left is a "hoofer" (Points = 5) and the other is a "razorback" (Points = 5).
The one on the left is a "snouter" (Points = 10) and the other is a "leaning jowler" (Points = 15).
For these last four, the point total quadruples if the pigs land in the same position. For example, two snouters would be 40 points.
One additional rule is that before the pigs are tossed another player can yell "Sooee!" That player predicts the outcome. If he or she is right, then he or she gets double the points and the tosser must subtract the same number of points. If he or she is wrong, then you do the reverse.
Well, there you have it. Now you have grasped the inner workings of Pig Mania. No need to thank me for adding to your cultural proficiency.
