Bowled Over by a Soup Bowl Party

By Tonia

If women’s parties are Estrofests, Super Bowl parties are Testo-fests. Parties of men’s ritualistic spectatorship – a happy male civic duty of sorts. Don’t get me wrong, I like seeing muscular men in tights crouched down with their butts in the air. (That’s a “tight end,” isn’t it?) It’s those helmets and mouth guards that don’t do much for me.

It IS the most watched American TV show of the year. And it IS the second-biggest day for gluttony – following Turkey Day, of course. So, it seems that Super Bowl Testo-fests are parties of sitting on your ass, screaming at the TV, belching, and eating yourself into a heart attack. And that’s male bonding. Wow.

I guess some women watch the Super Bowl (and even understand it) but I’m not one. Never sure if this is the game with the pointed ball, the dimpled ball, or the big round ball that goes through a hoop. I’m not sure I know a huddle from a hurdle, or a touchdown from a hoedown. And what is this “illegal use of hands?” I thought that was what 13 year old boys did during slow dances. Or else they “fumbled.” Oh well. What do I know?

So, if you and your girlfriends want to get as far away as possible from Super Bowl Testo-fests - without having to leave the country - we suggest another kind of BOWL party. A SOUP BOWL party! Serve your favorite soup or two (or three if you are an overachieving Susie Homemaker like Rachel). Tell everyone to bring her own “sacked” soup BOWL (bowl in a decorated sack) with a printed joke or funny quotation in it about men and women. When it is time to eat, have everyone select a sack that they did NOT bring themselves. Let them enjoy the BOWL humor before they eat.

For entertainment you can toss pennies into different kinds of BOWLS (i.e. salad BOWL, mixing BOWL, fish BOWL, cereal BOWL…toilet BOWL? Nah…). Make up rules so that guests can win BOWL prizes such as a BOWL full of chocolate kisses, a BOWL full of mini liquor bottles, a BOWL full of travel size lotions, a BOWL of packages of flower seeds, etc.

OR

Purchase a child’s BOWLing set and take turns BOWLing. For every pin NOT knocked down, make a dollar donation to your favorite women’s charity.

And make a Testo-fest into an Estrofest!