Date: 17 Dec 2017
Location: Reynolds & Linda
The December Pizza Party was held at our home on the seventeenth. It was unseasonably warm and there was no need for a fire, which we usually have this time of year. As the Bookers assembled in our kitchen with their boxes of pizza, it was an easy decision to eat now while the pizza was warm. One of our members had the foresight to bring a salad, which went very well with the pizza. As far as I could see, no two pizzas were alike, which made for a really nice pizza buffet.
Although the Bookers are about as easy to gather as a group of cats, we did eventually assemble in the livingroom for our book discussion. Those who did tarry in the kitchen for a few minutes missed the entire discussion. Everyone who read the book liked it. The only comment was that he was a good storyteller. Most of us were surprised, as was the author, that there is an NFL type football league in Italy, and from this he spun a very readable tale. Things then moved on to other topics.
This being a multi-faceted meeting, after the discussion had begun to slack off, we moved on to our Dirty Christmas segment. Someone who could write, more or less legibly, distributed slips of paper with numbers on them and, fortunately, everyone got a different number. After the rules were explained and more or less understood, person #1 selected a book from among the pile of wrapped books. Things proceeded fairly smoothly, with some book thefts, but no serious fights until there was one book left. There was then another discussion about the rules and whether the game would end if the last book was taken – she did and it was.
Moving on to our final segment, a group photo, discussions were launched about where we should stand and sit. When that was settled, we moved on to the gesticulations of the photographer, squeezing people together or apart while leaving room for him to saunter over to the assemblage to be in the photo. After several practice shots (I say practice because there did not seem to be anything going on with the camera while the photographer moved back and forth), there appeared a flashing light on the camera that blinked faster and faster until it stopped but nothing seemed to happen. There is a lot to be said for the days when flash powder was used to take photos and you definitely knew that something had happened when the powder exploded. After another sequence of flashing lights, the photographer pronounced the job done. It was noted that the taking of the photos took longer than the book discussion.
After being satiated by both pizza and discussion, the Bookers drifted away into the night.
— Reynolds