what game, if any?
If conversation lags and no talent, expected or discovered, turns up to fill the breach, games usually seem to be the answer. If you're strong for unplanned parties and you're entertaining a good group of game­sters, wait until the crucial moment arrives to ask: "Who has a game to suggest?" You may get some exceedingly interesting games out of this method, but it's safer to be prepared with a game or two of your own.

How to choose what sort of game to play is in some measure decided by the kind of people your guests are. If they're intellectual, you prob­ably choose a pad-and-pencil game. If they're gay and like action, you play The Game, or something lively. Sometimes you'll have a guest or two about whose taste in games you can't be sure. You will choose games which you're reasonably certain will appeal to most of your guests. If you're wrong about one or two and they're kind and co­operative people, they'll play along anyway.

sometimes be firm
Sometimes the best way to get a game started is just to say: "Now we're all going to play Guggenheim," or whatever you've chosen. If people are really at sixes and sevens and no one is paying much atten- tion to anyone else, they will probably be glad to get the game under way at once. If you're not quite sure, though, whether a majority will want to play, go at it more quietly through individual inquiries. If you find enough cooperation, get out the necessary equipment and gradually everyone will be drawn in.

play for money
When you know or discover that most of your guests at a party want to play a game for a money stake, the hosts may have to protect some of their guests from those who want to set the stakes too high. It's the hosts' job to see that no one is forced to play for more than he chooses, and where there is disagreement or uncertainty, the hosts' word ought to decide. Of course, there are some people who always insist on playing for too high stakes whether or not they can afford it, but you can't do much about that. You are protective, tactful hosts, not bosses.

the host as disc jockey
The phonograph can be an instrument of entertainment or of com­plete torture. The host or hostess who collects records and insists on playing all his newest acquisitions to his guests is the perfect illustra­tion of "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People." The truth is that unless you are entertaining only one or two friends who share your passion for the latest musical comedy, hillbilly songs, or Bach chorals, you had best not regard your phonograph as a means of entertainment except, of course, for dancing.