Thursday, May 20, 2010

4s Hook Quiz

So as I've been studying my 4's, I've also been trying to pay attention to any interesting hooks that they take. See if you know the unusual front hooks these words take:

YARD
HOOT
MAZE
SADI
ATAP
RARE
AGIN

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Quackle: The Video Game

So my 7 year old son thinks Quackle is a video game- He plays against the computer, uses the 'Generate choices' function, and picks one. He gets very excited when his 'choices' beat the 20 second Championship Player. Maybe this means he'll stop asking for a PSP for Christmas.



Sunday, May 9, 2010

Found Extension of the Day

I'm always on the lookout for new words.. so when I was following a Cook's Illustrated recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb pie, I was intrigued by ARROWROOT, not only because I didn't have any on my spice rack, but because it would be a cool extension to play in scrabble.

Here's a few other back extensions to the word ARROW:
ARROWHEAD
ARROWLESS
ARROWLIKE
ARROWWOOD
ARROWWORM

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Studying 4s

So we've had an extra laptop in our house for the past few weeks, and I just recently figured out that I can carry it along with me to work. (I'm a letter carrier for the Post Office. So if you see a guy in western mass typing in his truck instead of delivering mail, it might be me.) I installed Zyzzya, and decided to start seriously studying my four letter words. I could be wrong, but I think that learning the '4s' is one of the main hurdles one has to get over before moving toward the upper end of an intermediate ranking. Of course, I haven't actually played in a tournament since 2008, so I don't really know what my ranking is. Hopefully it's higher than the 1075 I rated after the two that I played in that year. Not because I'm egotistical about it, but because I'd be ticked if I've been studying flashcards and reviewing games all this time without improving. Anyway, here's a few words I've discovered recently, narrowed down because they are formed from surprise -Y end hooks.

ATOPY a type of allergy (ATOPIC adj)
BOTHY a hut in Scotland
COBBY stocky
DONSY donsie (adj) (anagram: SYNOD)