"I Know Him So Well"

Apr 10, 2008

A couple of weeks ago we went to an Elder's Quorum activity. These don't happen very often so we didn't really know what to expect. There weren't all that many couples there, and while we were loitering around the snack table someone asked us if we would participate in the "Newlywed Game" they had set up. He said the question was rhetorical, which I assume meant we really didn't have a choice, so I said "Absolutely we will".
Richard and I and 4 other couples filed up onto the stage, and as I checked out our competition, I was feeling pretty confident. Then they asked the husbands to leave the room, asked the wives a number of questions about our spouses which we wrote down on some torn up pieces of paper, and then brought the husbands back in. Time to show our stuff.
The first question was "What is your husband's least favorite food?" One man said "Steak" and his wife replied "You are an idiot!" Another guy said "Casseroles". His wife had guessed "Fatty Foods" which was deemed too vague. Richard answered "Tomatoes", and I smugly showed my card that clearly read "TOMATOES", and I couldn't help but think to myself "We are going to win the crap out of this competition!!!"
It was the only question we got right all night.

So, yeah, we lost miserably. The winners got a bucket of popcorn and a gift certificate to Block Buster. Some members of the audience said that as the losers, maybe we should have won the prize so that we would be forced to spend more time together. Naturally, losing this way sparked some discussions about how we would answer these questions in the future, so, here is what Richard and I learned about each other that night and the nights that followed

  • Richard's least favorite subject in school (BYU) was Music Appreciation. I enjoy the irony of that.
  • I really don't have a favorite movie (How could I pick just one?)
  • If Richard had to choose between John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, he would pick Clint (I knew that, but he thought I would think the answer was John.)
  • My pet peeve is people talking on the phone while driving. (This doesn't stop ME from doing it of course.)
  • In a choice between Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, Richard would pick Dodge (His actual choice is Bentley, but that wasn't one of the options).
  • If I won a million dollars, the very first thing I would buy is clothes. I said something noble like paying off debt and giving lots of it away. But let's be honest. I'm going to need some new clothes to wear before I can start my philanthropy. (I almost just wrote philandering. But that is NOT what I meant. Though,come to think of it, I would need some new clothes for that too, but that is a whole different kettle of fish.)

The other thing we learned is that questions like these are kind of dumb. You can know someone really well and have no idea how they would answer these questions. Be that as it may, I would like to do a Mother/Daughter activity where they have to answer questions about each other, so I am looking for good questions that really test to see how well you know someone. Any suggestions?