Berzerk PJs: A Scrabble Short Story

At Scrabble the other night, I won the draw to play first, but drew these tiles:

Ack! No vowels except the blank and nothing on the board to use either.

So instead of "wasting" the blank on a short word, I traded away BKJP and wound up with this rack, playing on my opponent's PINE for a 73 point bingo.


Excellent!

Today, Quackle revealed some higher-point options for both racks. My choices are highlighted, and the best plays are nearest the top of each list.

BZRKPJ?

FROZEN?

There are some new words for me to learn and recall: ZERK, OPINE, UNFROZE.

"A" My Name is "____." My Husband's Name is "____."

Recently one of "my" bloggers posted 10 things she loved starting with the letter B and I opted to be tagged, winding up with the letter A.

First off, I thought of the alphabet jump rope rhyme that goes

A my name is Alice My husband's name is Al We live in Atlanta And we sell Apples B my name is Betty My husband's name is Bob We live in Boston And we sell Beans

The rhyme continues through the alphabet and was quite fun to jump to.

So 10 things I like that start with A:

Apple chopped up with celery, walnuts and cottage cheese or yogurt is a favorite meal. It's a variation of Waldorf Salad, something my grandmother made for Christmas Dinner (and others) every year.


Adhesive of various types is a necessity. Except when its remnants are stuck to my skin! One of my favorite adhesives is silicone.

Arse the word, not the thing. Stephanie, The Yarn Harlot, use this word and it cracks (ha ha) me up enormously.

Antigravity is a regular feature in Science Fiction stories, but beware that the mass is still there and can cause damage!

The A tile in Scrabble, drawn to determine who plays first, is beat only by the Blank tile. Drawing it ensures that my first word gets double points, a good thing indeed. On the other hand, the one who starts has to keep score!

Almonds are one of my staple foods. Tasty, full of mono-saturated fat, protein, and a few carbs, I eat them whole or chopped every day, often with cottage cheese and fruit, always in hot multigrain cereal, or any time I need to add a little good fat to a meal. I buy them whole at Trader Joe's and use my hand-cranked nut chopper as needed.

Alpacas are a favorite animal because they produce such soft fiber for spinning, knitting, and so on.

Air is my favorite mixture of gasses, though I admit to not thinking about it often. I'm starting to run out of ideas here! Do I have 10 yet? Only eight? OK. Two more. Where's the dictionary? LOL

Alligator, as in "See you later, alligator." If you get C, you can use "crocodile."

Arithmetic! It's so clear cut, black and white, with easy rules. Completely unlike history, literature, or philosophy. But let's not extend my favor too far into trigonometry or calculus!

If you'd like to play, let me know and I'll send you a random letter of the alphabet.

Better now than then

It used to be that people paid me to write. Paying attention to grammar, as well as other aspects of producing publications, was important; remnants are still lodged in my brain!

Recently I've been noticing the words "then" and "than" being misused frequently by people who ought to know better.

THAN is a conjunction that connects two things being compared. Turquoise is bluer than red. Barack is taller than John. Cinder has more fur than Jumper. This might be more than you want to think about.

THEN is an adverb of time or order. That was then, this is now. What did he do then? Jim burped first, then Nancy chimed in. When you get these two words straight, then what?

If you're interested in reading more about using these two words, this Google search is a good place to start.

Other often confused sets of words are its|it's|its', insure|ensure, and affect|effect. Washington State University hosts a set of pages clarifying the use of hundreds of words. Book and calendar versions are also available.

You're Not Alone

..in being confused about knitting lingo, JD! Here's a glossary for you.

On the sock front, I finished the first Gras Jaywalker and started the second last night during Lost commercials. The heel did a bit of the sock monkey thing, but that's OK. I'm NOT frogging! LOL


At last, my first book review! I can't imagine why I've put it off so long, since I enjoy recommending books to friends and complete strangers (just try looking at the new book shelf at the library when I'm standing there and a good book I've read is on the shelf!). Yesterday I finished Kate Wilhelm's Sleight of Hand. An Oregon author, Kate's science fiction caught my attention long ago and I've also enjoyed her mysteries. This story is one featuring Barbara Holloway, a fictional lawyer living in real Eugene Oregon. Nearly a third of the book takes place during a murder trial in which she represents the (innocent, of course, and likeable) defendant. Barbara's father is also a lawyer (semi-retired) and has two cats named Thing One and Thing Two in honor of their wildly destructive natures as kittens. There's a wannabe-boyfriend-with-son (Barbara's, not her Dad's!), a hateful victim, a loveable victim, twists, dilemmas, and suspense. All that and a wonderful writing style! I recommend it.

KSL

Fragments of email with a non-knitting friend yesterday and today:

JD:

Frog, tink, and LYS . What are they? (Cool blog)

Me:
Frog is a verb meaning "rip out." Comes from "ribbit."
Tink is "knit" backwards, basically unknitting one stitch at a time. Backing up.
LYS is Local Yarn Store.

JD:
Reading your blog makes me think of KSL. Can you interpret?

Me:

Totally baffled. No context to guess within! Korean Sign Language?

Google reports:

Utah radio station

Stanford's Knowledge Systems Laboratory

Kitchen Sink Language

Kansas State Library

enough guesses, I have to get ready to leave! Later!

JD:

OK , big hint. I made it up based on education catalogs, etc., and in

everyday highschool/gradeschool/college language, as " ESL".

Me (feeling really stupid by now):
Knitting as a Second Language?

JD:
Bingo!

EZ is My First Knitting Hero...

...and I'm not alone in my appreciation of her wit, knitting know-how, and common sense. Here's the online version of a recent exhibition that featured her work: New School Knitting: The Online Catalog and Virtual Exhibition

Go and browse. Especially check the pics of the opening day to see some inspirational hand-knits worn by the attendees, including Meg Swanson.

Did you notice the small qualification in the title? First? I've had her books for years and read them several times each. My adult surprise jacket got 98% done before I frogged it (after shrinking out of it--sounds better than messing up the gauge, right? LOL), and all but one or two of my Wool Gatherings newsletters are actually in the same place!

With my reborn interest in knitting and access to knitting blogs, I have some new knitting heros. Only about a hundred million of them. So EZ represents! Am I using that word right?

Inventing Words

Dislexicon: The English Language Extender

Here's a password or blog name generator. Well, you could use it that way. Just feed it a root word or word fragment, and it will generate some almost real words with definitions. Who knows? Maybe some words are actually real. For best password security, add a number somewhere. Here's what happened when I entered "knit":

1:	neoknit	neo-knit	new knit
2:	knitphyll	knit-phyll	leaf knit
3:	intraknit	intra-knit	within knit
4:	locusknitability	locus-knit-ability	inclination or suitability for place knit
5:	underknit	under-knit	beneath or below knit
6:	knitferous	knit-ferous	producing or containing knit
7:	knitcyte	knit-cyte	cell knit
8:	knitize	knit-ize	to cause to be or to become knit
9:	knitess	knit-ess	a female knit
10:	knitcide	knit-cide	to cut down or kill knit
11:	oculoknit	oculo-knit	eye knit
12:	ornithoknit	ornitho-knit	bird knit
13:	knitphobia	knit-phobia	fear of knit
14:	osteoknit	osteo-knit	bone knit
15:	multiknit	multi-knit	many knit
16:	spirareknitite	spirare-knit-ite	native, resident or part of breathe knit
17:	chromaknit	chroma-knit	color knit
18:	gastroknit	gastro-knit	stomach of knit
19:	cytoknit	cyto-knit	cell knit
20:	pneumoknitably	pneumo-knit-ably	performing in a manor worth of air knit
21:	corporknitive	corpor-knit-ive	performing or tending toward body knit
22:	knitambulate	knit-ambulate	to walk or wander knit
23:	ooknit	oo-knit	egg knit
24:	disknit	dis-knit	not knit
25:	photoknitling	photo-knit-ling	one connected with light knit

Represent What?

Recently both Stephanie and Laurie used the word "represent" in a way that confused me. I'm not widely read (being primarily a reader of several genre), but I'm a frequent reader and have been forever (or at least since 3rd grade when I discovered novels, specifically Beverly Clearly and Carolyn Haywood), so when two excellent writers used "represent" without objects, I had to start researching. Not being a rap sort of person, I wasn't surprised that the usage was new to me. While I'm not certain this is the same one as understood by my fellow (hah! as if I rank anywhere near them in the field) bloggers, it seems to fit their contexts well enough. Language is in constant flux, which makes it possible for dictionary writers, editors, and publishers to keep making their livings! Not to mention making it easier for insiders (such as teenagers) to confound outsiders (adults) with their jargon (slang). Though it should be argued (try to stop me!) that the insider/outsider result is not usually deliberate but an outcome of people with a shared interest needing to come up with words specific to that interest. Frog, tink, and LYS come to mind.

Word (not the application) Resource

OneLook Dictionary Search

One Look is a quick way to find a definition, look up a phrase, find a 2 letter word starting with "z", or all the words that end in "ation." The input field accepts spaces and wildcard characters as well as a-z and 0-9.

I just looked up "pink" and while I shouldn't be, I'm a little surprised at how many different meanings it has. In addition to links to 34 definitions in various dictionaries, One Look reports:

Quick definitions (pink)

# noun: a light shade of red
# noun: any of various flowers of plants of the genus Dianthus cultivated for their fragrant flowers
# verb: sound like a car engine that is firing too early (Example: "The car pinked when the ignition was too far retarded")
# verb: cut in a zig-zag pattern with pinking shears, in sewing
# verb: make light, repeated taps on a surface
# adjective: of a light shade of red
# name: A surname (rare: 1 in 100000 families; popularity rank in the U.S.: #8703)

One look also reports phrases containing the word and words similiar to it. The "additional searches" link suggests other resources for rhymes, translations, usage, and news.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you can add to

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of my favorite references on the web is Wikipedia, especially when I'm trying to find information on something I know nothing about. Wikis are usually collaborative compliations of information hyperlinked together, much like what the web was intended to be before the advertisers were drawn in to help pay for the bandwidth and server farms. For more information, see Wiki. If you're interested in creating a wiki for a project or group, this easy-as-a-peanut-butter-sandwich wiki could be just the ticket.

BTW, if you're one of those editors frustrated by poor punctuation and spelling, wikipedia offers some wonderful opportunities for you to make corrections instantly!