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Saturday 6 December 2014

"Covenant!"

I don't really know anything of Scott Hahn, seen a few minutes of him here and there on EWTN, but I just about did a full on spit-take when I saw this headline in Eye of the Tiber. (It's a few months old, but I had missed it till now.)
New Scott Hahn Drinking Game Has Readers Taking Shot After Every Mention Of Word “Covenant”
Steubenville, OH––A new, dangerous drinking game invented by Franciscan University of Steubenville sophomore Ben Johnson, known as Covenant, is sweeping Catholic universities. The game, which involves players reading any book ever published by Scott Hahn, and then taking a shot of whiskey or beer every time the word “covenant” is mentioned, is raising major concerns with university officials.
What originally started out as fun for some has now turned dangerous, officials are reporting, with one man listed in critical condition and at least 47 others being admitted to area hospitals for alcohol poisoning. Now health professionals are warning Catholics of the dangers of playing Covenant.
“This is one of, if not the most, lethal games I’ve ever come across,” said Dr. Candice Jarvis, medical adviser to the USCCB. “The thing about alcohol is that it affects your ability to recognize how many times Scott Hahn uses the word “covenant,” and it absolutely effects your ability to ask the question of whether or not there are any synonyms of the word he could be using. You go into the game thinking the word will be read two or three times, and next thing you know you’re on your 26th shot after just a few paragraphs. I’d even venture to say that it would be safer if students took a shot after every mention of the word ‘the.’”
When Trivial Pursuit was new(-ish) the standing joke in my family was that if you didn't know the answer you still had a good shot at getting it right by shouting out either "Reykjavik!" or "contract bridge!"

Well, there's a kid in my class who loves to shout out answers to questions, but not to actually bother think before he does so.
Every week there is a single word or short phrase on the board for that weeks topic, as well as another for whatever we discussed the previous week, and whatever those words are, he latches on to one of them and volunteers it as the answer to whatever I've asked, regardless of sense.

For two weeks now, it's been "covenant."

"Covenant!"

"This one's covenant, right?"

"I'm gonna guess covenant."

"Covenant?"

"Covenant, it's covenant!"

"I'm sure it's covenant!"

If I'd been doing shots, I'd have alcohol poisoning.

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