Bingo!

February 2002. I was in the second semester of my first year of law school. At times law school could actually be entertaining...and at times it was very much not so. Well, this night was a bit different than other nights (at the time I was in the night program). At the beginning of class, Josh, a fellow student, handed out some bingo cards to some of his friends in the class. Seated near the back of the class, I was one of the lucky individuals. The rules were explained, in each box, you were to write the name of a student in the class, with the middle of course being the free space. Once that person spoke in the class, you could cross off the box that contained that person's name.

At this point, it should be explained just how law school classrooms work. Law school is taught using the Socratic method. Essentially everyone reads the required cases before class and then a discussion about the case is directed by the teacher. Usually, the discussion is between the teacher and one student, with others offering questions/suggestions/comments along the way. Thus to have many different students speak during a class is not unusual.

So back to my bingo card. There was one final rule. As anyone who has ever played Bingo before knows, when you get five in a row, you have to let everyone else playing the game know that you won by shouting, "BINGO!!!!" After you shout these words, everyone else is shocked and disappointed, while you are giddy and do a weird sort of dance as you walk/skip to the front of the room and collect your prize. Naturally, this can't be done in a classroom where you are supposed to be learning about the law, and not playing bingo. Thus, the rule was slightly changed. When you have five in a row, the winne must raise his or her hand and make a comment in the class, somewhere in that comment the winner must use the word "bingo" to let everyone know that the individual had won.

I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking that night. I immediately put the four biggest talkers in a line with the free space being in the middle. It seemed to me extremely obvious as to who would get me bingo the quickest, these people talked every night, usually to the annoyance of everyone else. In fact, I only filled out the remaining boxes in the game because it seemed like you had to. Why? WHY? in the world would I put these four individuals in a row? I obviously wasn't thinking in advance because by putting these individuals in a row I would achieve a line of five quickly and thus I would "have" to make a comment. Why would I want to do that?!

Well, sure enough, fifteen minutes into class, I had bingo (these four were big talkers....). All of my friends around me insisted that I had to follow the rules, I had to make a comment, I had to say "Bingo." This night was also unusual as we had pre-law school visitors who were checking the school out. Usually, the seats next to me was vacant, however, tonight there was one such girl occupying the usually empty seat. She also insisted that I make a comment. "If you don't say 'bingo' I'm not going to come here." I'm not exactly sure why she thought that was a valid argument. Why would I care whether or not she came to law school here?

So there I am, puzzled. What to do? My focus on the class was completely gone, when all of a sudden, "Mr. Lie-duhl, why don't you help us out with this next case?"

"err...ok." Ack! The horror, here I am wondering whether I am going to comment or not and all of a sudden the teacher is forcing me to talk. To be called on to discuss a case is nerve wracking enough, thus the entire Bingo game has made everything completely out of whack. I am completely lost, all of a sudden my mind comes back to the classroom...and realize I have no idea what is going on, I barely know what case we are supposed to be talking about.

"So tell us Mr. Lie-duhl, what is this case about?"

"Well....err...we have a plaintiff and a defendant...."

"Goooood......."

I somehow manage to collect my thoughts. "Well, let's see.... Mr. Smith is sueing ... the Widget Corporation, um... for not fulfilling the contract to deliver, let's see here, errrr... 1000 copper widgets. The Widget Corporation instead delivered 1000 aluminum widgets. Widget Corporation states that the copper widgets and aluminum widgets perform the same and thus the contract was fulfilled. However, Mr. Smith is arguing that this is a material difference and is demanding that Widget Corporation pay the extra cost that Mr. Smith paid to order the copper widgest from another company."

"So, let me get this right, you are saying that Mr. Smith claims that there was a breach of contract based on a material difference?"

"Bingo."