The thing that precedes Part B

Some of the NJ-area members of the ol' fraternity had a mini-reunion at my house on Saturday. I had only briefly met some of them, but that's the beauty of a fraternity like mine - the continuity that enables camaraderie across "generations". We were the loud table at Pad Thai, as rowdy and high-spirited as any group of my close friends is prone to being.

"Reunion" may technically be an inaccuracy, but it definitely felt like a return to the old days.

There was beer pong. There were drunk sing-alongs. Towards the end of the night, there was an unceremonious Thai expulsion.

The most blog-worthy part - which is not to say best, most ridiculous, or even dumbest - occurred towards the beginning of the evening. The party-goers had not yet arrived, we Phi Psis had already started imbibing, and frankly we were bored.

Solution: Drinking game.

The Food Channel had some ridiculous program in which an air-headed "reporter" attended a conference on candy. As far as content goes, it was rather wanting... in fact, it downright sucked. Excepting for the drinking game.

The rules were simple. Every time the hostess or any interviewees said "candy", you take a sip of beer. Like a grown-up (but not too grown-up) version of the Word of the Day on PeeWee's playhouse.

When we realized how frequently that terrible word came up, we changed our drinking cue to "sweet". This, too, was a confoundingly common word at the candy conference.

Finally we opted for Plan C, in which we drank cued not by a word, but by a concept: sexual innuendo. Again, I remind you, this was not the pinnacle of maturity, but a throwback to the old days. And it was fun.

It was also moderately horrifying, because we're talking about middle-age (at best) women and men doing things to candy that are reminiscent of sex. If it hadn't been so hilarious, it would've been mortifying.

The rest of the party will not be blogged about. I don't have pictures (thank god), for one thing. I guess it would be fun to write "race" reports of my many, many beer pong victories, but that's not happening either.

It was a good weekend. 'nough said.