{"id":77493,"date":"2014-09-30T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T20:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=77493"},"modified":"2014-09-30T16:27:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T20:27:11","slug":"hints-for-hosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/30\/hints-for-hosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Hints for Hosts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grun_-_A_Group_of_Artists\"<\/a>

Jules-Alexandre Gr\u00fcn, A Group of Artists, 1929.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have always planned to one day throw a big party and give everyone a survey at the door. Here is what it would say:<\/p>\n

Hi! My name is: _______________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u2610 The Host
\u2610 The Hostess
\u2610 I came with a friend
\u2610 I\u2019m crashing<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am from: ________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I live: ________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have lived there for: _________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I like about it: ___________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I don’t like about it: _______________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

My rent is*: _________________________________ *For New York Use Only<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to school in: ________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

I graduated in: ________<\/strong><\/p>\n

(I am ____ years old.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I work at: ________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u2610 Married
\u2610 Coupled
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My partner is here: YES \/ NO.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He\/she is the one wearing ___________.
\u2610 Single
\u2610 Other<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A few of my primary hobbies and interests are: ___________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

I am drinking: ____________________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the basic survey. Obviously, it can be customized and edited. If it were for sale in a gift shop selling pricey, urban nonessentials and Anne Taintor rip-offs, for instance, the survey (called something like Ice-Breakers or Social Cues) would surely contain many arch, cheeky references to one\u2019s mental state, romantic history, and possibly embarrassing personal details. But that\u2019s not how I envisioned it; I actually thought a document like this would allow people to skip a lot of the superficials and jump right into slightly smaller talk.<\/p>\n

I have never actually done this to my guests. That would require me to have a party, get things printed, and very possibly buy a lot of clipboards and scoring pencils, and then what would I do with all of them? It also involves the sort of forcible guest manipulation that I, as a guest, particularly fear. (I have an aversion to name tags, for instance.) I suppose it would involve some quiet reading time; maybe the vibe wouldn\u2019t exactly be raucous. But time spent reading is never time wasted. Nor, for that matter, is time spent sitting by oneself, writing about a party you will never have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always planned to one day throw a big party and give everyone a survey at the door. Here is what it would say: Hi! My name is: _______________________ I know: \u2610 The Host \u2610 The Hostess \u2610 I came with a friend \u2610 I\u2019m crashing I am from: ________________________________ Now I live: ________________________________ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[15482,15481,450,13082,15480],"class_list":["post-77493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-conversation-starters","tag-icebreakers","tag-parties","tag-small-talk","tag-surveys"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHints for Hosts by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 30, 2014 \u2013 I have always planned to one day throw a big party and give everyone a survey at the door. Here is what it would say: Hi! 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