A fun game – “What is Robert Parker doing?”
Towards the end of December I was looking for topics to write about in the new year. Most often I look at articles in the wine press and mock them royaly, but more recently I have started stalking celebrities from the world of fine wine on Twitter.
I must admit I have never entirely understood Twitter as a tool, being a bit of a latecomer to the world of social media. But I’ve started to embrace it recently as a source of amusement and wonder. And here’s why. I’ve invented a fun game, entitled, What is Robert Parker doing?
If you ever need a bit of a lift during the day, then you should play it too. And it’s very simple – all you have to do is create a Twitter account, follow Robert Parker at @RobertMParkerJnr, keep Twitter open on a tab on your internet browser, and tune in at regular intervals to find out what he is up to. And you can award yourself points for the following activities:
- One point is awarded if he is eating
- One point if he is drinking
- Two points if he mentions American Football
- Five points if he mentions crabs (Oh yes. This is explained below.)
- Ten points if he is doing something so bizarre that you really didn’t see it coming
Once you get to twenty points you can reward yourself with a nice cup of tea or something a bit stronger.
I first started playing this game when I read his update on 18th November: “ate so many hairy crab soup dumplings in Shanghai, they may reject my next request for a visa…” Genius!
Scrolling back, this was not his first mention of crabs, nor even hairy crabs. Only the day before, he had tweeted “after endless hairy crabs, snakes, eels, noodles, I am going to enjoy the quintessential turkey next week”.
It was no surprise that Parker was in Shanghai at the time. To my delight, the day before he had also chosen to tweet about his lunch: ‘went to the water towns outside Shanghai-quite beautiful…head the authentic hairy crab from Lake Yangcheng.. ugly but tasty buggers!’
Now I’ve selected these tweets because firstly I was quite pleased to discover that hairy crabs existed, and secondly that they sounded so delicious. But I can tell you that Robert Parker mentions crabs more often in his tweets than most crab enthusiasts do. Again, genius.
This isn’t a hard game, it won’t take you long to accumulate enough points to earn that cup of tea and that is largely because Robert Parker is ALWAYS eating and drinking. It makes me envy his life somewhat (although not his waistline, let’s face it.) Those occasional tweets that you didn’t see coming (worth 10 points) are the ones to really look out for. Like for example, who would have known that Robert Parker is an avid fan of Korean horror movies? I didn’t, but I learned it on Twitter a few days ago. That’s the brilliance of social media, I really enjoy his updates and learning that there is so much more to him than the man who is commonly blamed for inflated fine wine prices. His hurried tweets containing spelling mistakes make him yet more human. He is a really interesting man who it seems just can’t wait to tell the world about his fascinating (yet largely food and drink-based) adventures. And who can blame him? I would do exactly the same, in his shoes.
If you are playing the game and happen to notice a brilliant tweet by Robert Parker, why not tell us about it, or better still re-tweet it for our attention #12×75 (oh yes, I understand hash tags now as well) or better still follow us on Twitter as well!
