Monday, February 24, 2003

It's Mind Boggling..... I mentioned in an earlier post that I am an exceptionally skilled Boggle player.  This is simultaneously a point of pride as well as embarrassment.  It's great (especially for a competitive soul like myself) to be truly outstanding at something that I can win.  On the other hand, Boggle is awfully geeky, and it doesn't seem to pay well.  One of the cool things about being pseudo-serious about Boggle and Scrabble (at which I am a pretty good player, but not nearly as otherworldly as I am at Boggle) is perusing the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.  I own the second edition of the OSPD, which has since been altered to remove most of the bad words.  This is allegedly because the world championship was won a couple of years ago when the winner played the word "Fucking" on a triple word score to empty his rack and seal the victory.  The OSPD is fun because it has extremely simple--often only two or three words--definitions, and because the words are compactly placed enough that you can breeze through them and find the gems.  Also, it doesn't list any words longer than eight letters, since it's very difficult to play a word longer than eight letters in Scrabble. Some of my favorite OSPD words (and their actual definitions) include: Badass:  "A Mean Troublemaker."  I once actually found Badass on the Boggle board, but regrettably failed to see that "Badasses"  was also available.  And don't forget "Badassed," defined as "Characteristic of a Badass."  Stooker:  "One that Stooks" Freakier:  "Comparative of Freaky" Freakiest:  "Superlative of Freaky" Freakily:  "In a Freaky Manner" Soberize:  "To Sober"  I love this one, because it's like something you expect to hear in an AA meeting in Mississippi.  "I was a gol-durn drunk, but then I done got soberized!" But my all time favorite is Toadless:  "Having no toads."  Why?  Why is this a word?  "Due to pervasive acid rain conditions, this pond has become utterly toadless."  You may wonder if, say, "Dogless" or "Chickenless" or "Baboonless" or even "Frogless" is a word, but alas, they are not (though "frogging" is the present participle of "frog").  Apparently, Doglessness and Froglessness are of no concern to linguists, whereas a persistent pattern of Toadlessness is worthy of its own label.  Someday, I will utter the sentence "You know, that stooker over there is totally badassed, but after he's soberized he's going to find himself toadless." 4:07:31 PM    Let's hear it. []