In college, a bunch of us were staying at a friend's beach house for spring break. Three guys were playing the board game Risk. Bill and Boger were pretty evenly split with territories, and Ryan was down to a few measly countries. Ryan had to leave and asked me to take over his spot. I told him I had never played and had no idea how to play, but he said that he would literally be out in a turn or two. He just didn't want to mess up the game for Bill and Boger. They would explain the basics to me so that I could manage. Okay.

Well, cut to an hour or two later. Boger was out, and Bill only had a few countries left, basically in the same near death state I was in when I joined the game. Ryan returned to the house and asked who won. Boger, who was chilling on the couch, shouted, "I'm out!"

"Whoa! Kate! You beat Boger? Good for you!" Ryan was amazed.

"I'm about to beat Bill, too!"

Ryan looked at the board, and it was like he couldn't wrap his head around it. When I finally won, the guys in the house were honestly a bit in awe. Years later, Joe (another guy in the house) used to aver, "Kate's the smartest girl in the world. You don't get it. She's the smartest girl." I mean, there are women who work for NASA. I won a board game. Nevertheless, I've never played Risk since, partly because the chance has never arisen, but also because I doubt I would ever be able to top that victory. Let's leave the legend intact.