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Are you unscrupulous?

Recviate from the Argus

by Richard Herfurth

A professor is failing you as a result of a personality conflict. You have penetrat- ed the university's compu- ter. Do you change your mark?

You snap up two excel- lent seats on the Greyhound bus and save one, hoping the attractive person you see in line will ask for it. An old lady asks first. Do you tell her it is taken?

You discover that your mate is infertile. You really. want children of your own. Do you leave your mate?

These and many situa- tions like them, test your moral character every day. That's life, but it is also a game! What is it? It’s ‘A Question of Scruples.’

Parody on Bon Jovi’s.

Each player is dealt ques- tion cards and one answer card. The above are all examples of the sort of ques- tion that may come up. The answer cards have a yes, no, or depends on them. Moving clockwise from the dealer, players may ask ANY per- son. Once the question is asked, the player must reply with one of the three ans- wers. If the answer given is ‘depends’ he/she must, ‘with- out hesitation’ state on what

* your decision depends.

You win by getting rid of all your question cards. This is done by receiving the cor- rect answer which is found on the answer card dealt to you. If you get the wrong answer, you must discard your question and answer card and pick up two new

“Bad Medicine”

by Wendell Blackett.

I ain’t got a lever got a permanent sneeze.

None of my family doctors can prescribe a remedy. I got no more money, but that isn’t what we need. Gonna take more than a student loan to get tuition out of me.

I got all the symptoms, I am climbing a tree. That’s what you get for going for a degree.

A Question OF

ones. When you are asked a question, your answer card has no relevance to your

answer. The skill in asking questions is picking the

A student loan will give you a little but it is never enough.

That’s what you get for going for a degree.

and now I’ve been around to long to give it up. University is like bad: medicine, but bad medicine is what I need. Only a doctorite will cure this disease.

I don’t need a B.A. to give me a thrill.

And I don’t need no masters, or an academic thrill.

It’s just a constant addiction to know more than I do.

I got a thing for History, and some Shakespeare at the back.

That’s what you get for for going for a degree. a Student loan will give you some, but we don’t get no fide lunch. That is what you get for going for a degree.

Now we are all addicted and that degree is the drug. University is like bad medicine, but bad medicine is what I want. so give me the doctorite to cure my disease. I need a week to do this essay, and I’m running out of breath.

Not even an all night generater will let me catch my health.

So I’ll stay here till I am finished cause I haven’t found anything better yet.

and this place is still bad medicine, but that is what I want.

person most likely to give you the answer on your answer card. The skill in _ answering is guessing what the questioner expects you to say and answering dif-

ferently.

However, as in life, you don’t get off the hook for lying too easily. If another player does not believe that that is the way you would act in this particular situa- tion then he, or she, may ‘challenge’ you. This con- sists of a50 second debate in which you must convince the other players of your sincerity, while the challen- ger must convince them otherwise. The winner of the debate is established by a vote in which all players take part. The winner of this challenge gives the loser one

of their question cards, mak- ing them one step closertoa

victory. Players with one:

question card cannot chal- lenge, or be challenged by

others, which allows you to bluff much more freely. There are also cards which allow you to make up your own question to ask others.

Scruples is a game for 3 to 10 players. Game length depends on the amount of question cards dealt at the beginning. There is no board, so players may sit comfor- tably around the room. It sells for about $20 and there isa second edition available as well. It’s distributed by High Game Enterprises Inc., Winnipeg, Canada. Scruples can be found in most gam- ing stores.

As the game says, ‘Eve- rybody has moral dilemmas — but they rarely discuss them. Scruples lets people talk, get

_ to know each other, and be

entertained all at once.’

Record Reviews

Thomas offers inconsisieit effort

Ian Thomas Levity WEA

The ( Ciateliad ©

by Mike Spindloe an Thomas is the perennial underdog on the Canadian music scene, oc- casionally cracking. the domestic singles charts while cover versions of his work have been more successful in- ternationally. Thomas has released a steady stream of albums while building a good live reputation over the years, although he hasn’t been around Edmonton much recently.

Levity isa typical Thomas album, which means that when it is good, it is very good, and when it is bad, it is merely mediocre. The solid songwriting one expects from Thomas is here, along with clean, crisp production by Thomas and Christopher Neal. His voice has matured and deepened over the years and yet also somehow become less distinctive, at least on record

— perhaps the production is masking

something.

Many of the songs are also less distinctive than they should be. Thomas is aiming for —. the charts, and it is a sad commentary on our times that an artist who we know can write great songs is obviously doing some commercial tailoring. This is obvious be-

‘cause Levity splits virtually in half between

songs that sound and feel like lan Thomas’ songs and songs that sound like lan Thomas processed by a demographics-happy cuis- inart. A few lie somewhere in between.

This processing shows up most con- sistently on the three tracks produced by Neal, although his work on the title track fits the song well. Strangely enough, the two best songs, to these ears, have wound up at the end of side two: “These Are Not Gods” and “Let the Stone Roll”.

The latter especially is a great song, worthy of inclusion on Thomas’ next compilation even if it doesn’t get released as a single. A few others are too; whether or not you wait for that album depends on

= Thursday, January. 26, 1989