A dubious toy?

I don't know. It's one of the things I never dabbled with. Partly because my Dad once, quite seriously, told me not to. You would have thought I would have immediately gone and sought one out after that. But I never did. Because my Dad was quite serious about it, which struck me as weird. I would have thought my Dad would dismiss such a thing as nonsense.
Then when I was at art college, I went out with this girl. We went to the cinema one night and I think it was that film"Ghost". Afterwards she was in a really bad mood, and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't that bad a movie. Later she told me that there had been a scene in that film with a Oiuja board in it. And she went on to tell me she had used one when she was at boarding school. She said it was a terrifying experience and later that evening she was rescued by a passer-by, from trying to drown herself in the sea.
So I don't know. I would normally be sceptical about those sorts of things, which I sort of associate with Victorian parlour games that people indulged in because TV hadn't been invented yet.
But if my Dad warned me off it so vehemently, and that girlfriend, who was a pretty balanced sort of person, walked into the sea because of it, and got really upset just because of the sight of one in a film years later, maybe there is something to it.
I am talking about this because I am off work this week as it is half term at the college, and I am watching "the Wright Stuff", a strange mid-morning show on TV. Strange, because other than the fact it is on TV, in every other regard it is effectively a radio show. They just talk about topical things, review the papers and encourage people to phone in with their opinions. It is a fairly light-hearted affair. It's not like "Newsnight" or anything. One of the guests today is Mark Little, who used to be Joe Mangle in "Neighbours", so that should pretty much tell you the pitch of the show. Mark Little is very entertaining actually. Very funny. In case you saw the show, he should have gone to Specsavers. But it was quite an enjoyable show, although one that leaves you with the vaguely uncomfortable feeling that you should really have something more important to do. Which I do. I have a couple of paintings to be getting on with. But experience has taught me that I don't paint well in the morning. Well, it's not so much that I don't paint well. I don't paint at all. I potter about in the studio, finding any excuse not to paint until after lunch. I don't know why. You would think I would take advantage of the natural light which streams in in abundance through my north-facing studio window. But no, I think I'll just have another cup of tea first, and the cat's litter tray could do with being changed.
I know I should be more like Picasso, who once said, "I paint all day and f**k all night."
Nice work if you can get it. I f**k around half the day and paint all night. I'm not as rich as Picasso, but I'm not as bald either. And I have the added advantage of still being alive. So that's one nil to me.
Anyway, "the Wright Stuff" was talking about how a toy company is marketing a Ouija board as a game for kids. Given my, admittedly, second-hand experience of the subject I would say this might be a bad idea.
You might as well buy them a chemistry set, or Dungeons and Dragons, or God forbid, buy them a paintbox and encourage them to be an artist for a living. That will screw them up.