I'D LIKE TO BUY A VOWEL....
....I'll have an L, please.
A line from one of my favorite episodes of Wheel of Fortune. My grams, a word master, had me watching the show from the time I was a tot. There'd be a puzzle with 5 or 6 words, 2 letters revealed, and she'd solve it. ((We had to convince her not to blurt it out to give the rest of us a fighting chance!))
I haven't watched Wheel in years, and now I have a new favorite word game: crossword puzzles. A few weeks ago I glanced at one and knew the clue right off. Well, you can't know a clue then walk away without filling it in. One word led to another, and before long I had half the squares filled. ((I'm just not brilliant enough to get all the answers without looking up a few!!))
It dawned on me that playing the crossword helped me with writing--it was better to believe that than to think I was wasting precious time. Coming up with synonyms, alternate meanings, and filling in the blanks made me stretch my brain in a few new directions. Words I hadn't thought of in years starting cropping up, and I had to reach for new meanings of old phrases. This can only help me as a writer :D Plus, I've heard that these types of exercises keep you mentally agile.
For the record, my grams also did crossword puzzles......in pen.
What word games do you love? If not word games, any unique games/exercises that boost your creativity?
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Weekend Memories
3 hours ago
18 comments:
I loved watching that game with my mom and brother. I am a master speller, because of that show.(And my first grade teacher.)
Your gram did crossword puzzles in PEN?? One cool lady.
And you are right. What an awesome exercise. I think you have hit upon something ingenious. Something clever. Off to dig up some crossword puzzles. =)
Wheel of Fortune was Little Miss' favorite show as a baby! She was mesmorized by the clacking wheel and bright colors and numbers. She still likes it, though Dora and Max & Ruby take preference. =P
I love WOF for the same reasons, makes you stretch your mind. I've heard the same about mental agility with crossword puzzles. Good for you!
And yay Gram!! =)
Facebook has a game I played a lot for awhile, got addicted - where you were given a row of letters like scrablle and had to make as many words from them (3 letter words or more) and got points. After you got so many from one row of letters, you could click and change the row for fresh letters and keep going.
I've always enjoyed crossword puzzles, too. And sometimes the word jumble in the newspaper. But probably the exercise that boosts my creativity would be taking pictures, seeing life through the camera lens gives it a different perspective.
If I'm on the computer and want a happy little time waster, other than Farmville, I like to play Bookworm, a word search type game.
That's hilarious! I think I saw an episode or two where someone asked for a vowel and then said a consonant instead. I'm hoping it was just nerves! :-)
Right now, cleaning/purging is the only game I'm playing in life. But I can certainly see how crosswords are a benefit for writing. Definitely!
I love crossword puzzles. I buy a newspaper with the NYT puzzle in it and try to get it worked before the kids get out of piano lessons. The later in the week, the harder the NYT puzzle, so by about Wednesday, I'm really struggling...as for the Sunday one...forget it!
Oh I love Wheel of Fortune! I love Jeopardy more because it challenges me. As far as on paper, Suduko and word searches. I love me some good word searches!!!!
What a FUN post! I love the daily newspaper puzzles and work them as I breakfast as if they are a job.
First the Sudoku. If I mess up (usually) I LOVE scratching through the whole thing with one of my black pens.
Next, bridge. Always fun for me since I don't play much anymore with real people.
I end with the Cryptoquip. When Mom comes, we have to copy down the puzzle because we are both addicted!!!
Fun post!
Patti
Georgiana, I so agree. I find that word games in general help me incredibly with my writing. I have always enjoyed unscrambling words, making new ones in my head, and just playing little word games like that with myself. To this day, I still rock at Wheel of Fortune - my favorites are the toss-ups!
I've always loved Wheel! It's one of my absolute favorites. I like crosswords too, but sad to say I'm not too good at them. LOL
Thanks for stopping by today. :-)
Yay we are all in great company! Word games really are fun. I'll have to look some of those up, as I'm not familiar with all the games mentioned. Uh oh...more addicitions :O
Hey lady, you won the copy of Prada & Prejudice. Congrats!!
My grandmother watched the show faithfully- that and Price Is Right.
I never had a fighting chance either! I'm thinking of trying my hand at Sudoko.
Sudoko--we have that in our paper, but for some reason I need a super-sized eraser when I play. Hee hee, maybe someday!
I love playing Boggle and Word Whomp (on pogo.com). I've done crosswords in the past, and I enjoy doing them from time to time - but they HAVE to be somewhat easy, otherwise I'll give up because I don't know the answers, lol!
I know what you mean about easy...sometimes I need a little help. Today at gymnastics I got all the moms helping me out. Actually, it was kind of a cool bonding time and a way to talk to some I'd never spoken to before :D
The one that stumped us? Roman numeral for 905.
It's fun to try and outdo my hubby with fancy words. Whenever I use one he is unfamiliar with I celebrate! It's fun for both of us, I promise. :)
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