Alright, so we got invited to one of those costume parties, you know, the ones with a theme. This time it was “rhyme without reason” and specifically for pairs. Sounded fun, but then came the hard part: figuring out what the heck to wear.
We sat down, me and my partner, basically just started throwing words out. Anything that rhymed. Cat, hat, bat, mat… okay, that’s easy, but where’s the “without reason” part? Cat in the Hat is a thing. We needed nonsense.
Getting the Ball Rolling (or Rhyming)
The trick, we figured, was to think of two totally random things that just happened to rhyme. Forget logic. Just sound.
So, we started looking around the room, thinking of random objects, animals, anything really.
- I think one of us saw a picture of a farm animal, maybe a Goat? Then someone else pointed out a toy Boat. Goat… Boat! Perfect. No reason for them to be together, but they rhyme. That went on the list.
- Then we thought about people or characters. What about a King? Like from a deck of cards. What rhymes with King? Bling? Ring? Yeah, Ring! Like a wedding ring or just a big plastic toy ring. King Ring. Totally random. Added it.
- Outside, I saw a big oak Tree. Simple word. What rhymes? Bee, flea, key, knee… Bee sounded easiest to make a costume for. Tree and Bee. Done.
- We started thinking about spooky stuff for some reason. Maybe a Ghoul? Like a simple ghost sheet costume. What rhymes? Pool, tool, stool… Pool! Like a swimming pool. A Pool Ghoul. Weird, right? Exactly!
- Then we got really silly. Saw the mailman walk by. Mail. What rhymes? Snail, pail, whale… Snail! Snail Mail. It sounds like a thing, but the image of a person dressed as a giant snail handing over mail… that felt pretty “without reason” to us.
Making the Choice
We ended up with a decent list pretty quickly once we stopped trying to make sense of the pairs. We looked at our list:
- Goat & Boat
- King & Ring
- Tree & Bee
- Pool & Ghoul
- Snail & Mail
We picked the Tree & Bee combo for the party. Seemed the easiest to whip up some costumes for without spending much money or time. Cardboard for the tree trunk, some green stuff for leaves. Yellow and black stripes and some pipe cleaner antennae for the bee. Easy peasy.
It’s a fun theme once you get the hang of just letting the rhymes be random. Just pick a word, find a rhyme, and don’t overthink it! That was our process, anyway. Worked out pretty well.
