How to make new friends, how to play their new games

[venta]

You know what ? I think it's time for a Silly Game.

OK, here's the rules. It's a game in three stages.

Stage 1

Post an anonymous comment here. Post an in-joke, or a shared memory, or a cryptic clue. Most importantly, it should be something that will allow me to identify you, whilst concealing your identity from anyone else. These comments will temporarily be screened (ie hidden from anyone other than me).

Stage 2

I'll unscreen (ie make visible) any anonymous comments. You are invited to guess who any of the commenters are - post your guesses as replies to the relevant comment. The guesses (including my own) will all be screened.

Stage 3

I'll unscreen all the guesses, and the original commenters are requested at this point to make themselves known.

Scores will then be calculated as follows:
For a guesser - 1 point for every correct guess, 0 for a wrong guess.
For a commenter - 1 point for every person who guessed you wrongly, 0 for everyone who guessed you correctly. Your score doubles if I guessed you correctly.
(You can, of course, be both a guesser and a commenter).

So... it's in the commenter's interest to make their comment (a) comprehensible to me, (b) sufficiently obscure that no one but me can guess who they are, but (c) sufficiently intriguing/interesting/tantalising that as many people as possible will try to guess.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If the cat fits...

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

You've posted this so many times, I'll be bloody amazed if no one else gets it, secutatrix!

Liz/Venta

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

It mentions cats, therefore it's lanfykins

[(Anonymous)]

My pants are a Lambrini girl.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

And hurray for such frivolous things, sushidog.

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

proot?

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Morning, bateleur :)

[(Anonymous)]

You haven't cleaned any carpet with wine for ages...

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

That's probably because you haven't given me any wine in ages, leathellin!

Liz/Venta

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Just a quick comment on your scoring system:

I've decided to play the game as it was intended, but I'm convinced a much better winning strategy would be to post something obviously written by some well-known reader of yours other than me. Everyone would then try to guess it and I'd make a vast bucketload of points even though you got it wrong.

IMO the scoring system ought to be that if you don't guess it then it scores zero.

[(Anonymous)]

There was that one serious near miss where I mistook Samantha for you from behind and had circumstances been slightly different I might have embarrassed myself to a considerable degree. Fortunately, I tapped "you" on the shoulder first.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm. Now this is puzzling me. It obviously relates to an incident where I wasn't present, and if I was told about it, I don't remember.

I think I've come to the conclusion that this is not as compromising as it sounds, and the embarassment would merely have been caused by mistaking one person for another, not by anything more scandalous.

By the writing style, I'm going to guess spindlemere, though I doubt he'd had been posting at this time.

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

I know what you did during your 4th year!

(Oh, and I'm a spambot apparently. Hmmmm.)

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Well shhhh! They haven't found the bodies yet.
Er... onebyone? Really not sure about that.

[(Anonymous)]

Just how do you prove your human?

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Flippin' eck, no idea.
drdoug ?
Though I don't expect him to have made a grammatical error :)

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

My master fights a conflict which he does not understand
It's five parts Mary Magdalene and five parts Vietnam

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

You've lost me completely.

I'm therefore going to assume that the comment is a very obscure lyric, and that thus you are zotz. But that's a total stab in the dark.

Ooh, unless you're condign. Probably not allowed two guesses, am I ? Stick with the former.

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

I studied Mathematics at Keble College, but that was a very long time ago.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Could be a couple of people, but I think I'm going for ringbark. At least, I think that's what you said :)

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

Preachers smell like Garlic

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

This is one on which I am completely stumped.

Fairly random guess of: inskauldrak

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

I see ^shapes

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

I'm assuming this is an Idlewild reference, but it doesn't quite narrow it down enough. Er... metame ?

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

I'm only playing because your current music is The Best Album Ever

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Er... kauket? Though I thought you were more of a Mother's Milk kind of girl.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, looks like your game may have scared everyone off...

(This isn't a proper comment, although anyone's welcome to guess it if they like ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

Rock in exchange for random greetings.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

That'd be a lot of people saying "narenek says 'hi'", then :)

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

Composting skip.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, I wasn't execting that! Lentils, 4!

Hullo, failmaster.

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

Fancy a jaunt to the swamp?

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Now then... could that be an invitation from voratus?

Liz/Venta

Kerryptyk

[(Anonymous)]

Deep in the Palatinate, somewhere along the 3rd river, a little greenie sat plotting adventure in the wide world beyond. Then got stuck in the past.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, marjory, I got it from the word "greenie" then had to puzzle the rest out :)

Liz/Venta

[(Anonymous)]

Obscure hand signals.

ECW

[(Anonymous)]

Joining in a bit late there, but hello mrph.

[(Anonymous)]

Oops.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, I know who this is on account of the comment posted non-anonymously immediately beforehand... don't think we'll count this one, though :)

[(Anonymous)]

The password be known but the text unreturned without a dolphin in sight..

[venta.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no idea. At all. Dolphins ? Er... ach ?

[(Anonymous)]

super short skirt, legs upto armpits, only to be seen at whitby

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, you've lost me.
Someone who wears very short skirts, has very long legs, and whom I only see at Whitby ? Er, nope. No one's springing to mind, to be honest.

[(Anonymous)]

All aussies know each other.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It's not all aussies, shrydar, it's all people from Perth.