Double Ds

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end. Put your answer in the comments without looking at what other people have said.

1. _quat_
2. _ero_
3. _inimalis_
4. _ro_

Stars!

Each phrase is a clue about a particular person. You will find that two (sometimes more) letters have been replaced in the clue by stars. The missing letters will be used to begin each word of the answer. For example, if the clue was “Talksho* H*st,” you would figure out that it is a talkshow host with the initials “O.W.” (Oprah Winfrey)

1. *urrealistic *rawer: __________
2. low*r cas* poetry s*ribe: _________
3. Comman*er, Freela*ce Writing Jobs: __________
4. Jeop*rdy! Know-I*-All: __________

Leave your answers in the comments. How many can you get without looking them up?

Stars!

So, I have a new game for us to try out here at the Other Stuff blog today. I call it stars because it uses asterisks, and because it usually deals with famous people. Here’s how it works:

Each phrase is a clue about a particular person. You will find that two (sometimes more) letters have been replaced in the clue by stars. The missing letters will be used to begin each word of the answer. For example, if the clue was “Talksho* H*st,” you would figure out that it is a talkshow host with the initials “O.W.” (Oprah Winfrey)

As always, leave your answers in the comments, and don’t peek at the others before you post your own. Honor system and all that…

1. Nineteen Ei*hty F*ur: __________
2. *aVinci Code *estseller: __________
3. The Hand*aid’s T*le: __________
4. Cre*tor of The Lovely Bone*: __________

Double Ds 2

It seems like you’re enjoying the idea of word games here on the Other Stuff blog. Sweet! Let’s try another round of Double Ds.

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end.

1. _eve_
2. _ar_
3. _atc_
4. _atastrophi_

Double Ds (or Ys or Qs or Whatever)

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end.

How many of the following can you get? Go ahead and post your answers without looking at what other people have left in the comments. We’re using an honor code here, by the way.

1. _RIM_
2. _EDIU_
3. _OADSTE_
4. _ISBAN_

“Would You Like to Play a Game?”

First of all, I’ll give a big shoutout to whomever can answer the question in the title by telling me the name of the game it alludes to.

My plan since taking over has been to play some word games here on the Other Stuff blog. Theoretically, those of us reading it are writers, after all, and who likes a good word game more than we snobs? Plus, there’s the added incentive of competition, excitement, and possible recognition as a smarty-pants. What’s not to love?

I promise that this is something I planned to do long before Deb announced that she was trying to build community by holding a comments contest. Really. Truly. I even had planned to start it on October first…no joke. But, now of course, I just look like I had to come up with some hair-brained scheme to try and get people to like me enough to comment on my blog. Oh well.

Some of the games will allow for more than one correct answer, and others will require one answer to build upon others left in the comments section, so you may want to subscribe to comments to keep up, if you’re really serious about playing. For now, there won’t be any prizes other than the adulation of your peers, but we’ll see if we can’t rig something up for later if it goes well.

I’ll get this posted, and then I’ll start us off with our first game.

(Ooh, and I’d like to add that if anyone has suggestions for word games that will work well in this format, I am ALL EARS – lornadoone at berrybrewer dot com.)

More “Funny” Stuff

We’ve extended our trip by a week, so updates will be from sunny (scorching, sticky, humid, sweltering) Florida. It turns out that my grandma gets the large-print edition of the Reader’s Digest, and I just happen to come across a recommendation to check out what is billed as The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. I looked it up and immediately knew that you had to see it, too.

I admit that most people aren’t as snooty, snobby, stuck up, and self important as I am when it comes to punctuation, so it did my heart good to see that not only do they post pictures of signs using unnecessary quotation marks, but they also tell you what those sign literally mean with the incorrect punctuation. Pretty funny stuff, I tell you.

Of course, this means that it is once again time for me to request that if you see poorly spelled or improperly punctuated signs, ads, headlines, etc., you should send them to me at lornadoone at berrybrewer dot com.

A Three Hour Tour, A Three Hour Tour

I have learned a couple of things about staying with the extremely aged: 1. No one so much as bats an eye if you announce in the middle of the afternoon that you’re going to go take a nap. 2. If you buy applesauce and pudding for the baby, you’d better keep an eye on it.

see more Lol Celebs

OK, first of all, why don’t “hour” and “tour” rhyme? It never occurred to me before just now, but shouldn’t they rhyme?

Totally not the point of this post, though.

On September 15th, I loaded my 1 1/2 year old and myself, along with a stroller, a diaper bag, a purse, a sling, and one checked bag onto an airplane with a fair amount of dread in my heart. My darling daughter doesn’t even like to be in a carseat, so you can imagine how thrilled I was at the prospect of holding her on my lap for hours on end.

Also, my husband, who has never traveled alone with a baby before, got us a better deal by scheduling us with a SIX HOUR layover in Denver. Awesome. Next up came Atlanta, where earlier torrential rains forced us to wait on the tarmak while my next fly rose into the sky without me and my hungry, none-too-happy toddler. There were more problems and issues, and we ended up with a room at the local Doubletree with plans to fly out the next morning.

We did finally make it to our destination, something like 28 hours after actually leaving home. Florida is hot and sticky, and my mom came to the airport to pick us up without a car seat. Again with the awesome.

We’ve been working to get into the swing of things with my mom and my 95-year-old grandmother and 98-year-old grandfather ever since. It definitely encourages you to take care of your health while you can.

This is where this post is supposed to get poignant, but we’ll see if I can make my point without just bumming you out.

Yesterday morning my grandfather had a massive heart attack. The paramedics did what they could, but if he were to wake up from it (which is very unlikely), he would probably have severe brain damage from lack of oxygen. He has been removed from life support and Grandma is waiting at the hospital with him while he slips away from this life.

Of course, I’m very sad about all of this. My grandfather is a wonderful man who has treated me better than just about any other in my life. Still, the existence he was living up to this point was not a good one. I now understand how people can think “It’s for the best” at a time like this.

I have many thoughts, including that one; but the one I wanted to share with you is that I am so, so, so glad to have the profession I do. With my laptop, cell phone, and my mom’s Internet connection, I can still work. In fact, I can rebook my return ticket and stay longer to help my grandma through this time. After all, having the cutest, sweetest, smartest baby in the world toddling around your house can do a lot to lift your spirits and reflect on the beauty of life.

Being a freelancer not only allowed me to be here to see my grandfather one last time, but it will allow me to stay as long as I’m needed. I love that.

This Will Literally Make You Laugh Out Loud

As writers, we have to be really careful about the message we send with the words we choose.  That’s not to say we don’t appreciate a good metaphor from time to time, but if we’re not pretty clear about what we’re trying to say, then we’re probably also not going to get paid.

Visual artists, on the other hand, seem to have a little more wiggle room when it comes to interpretation.  I’ve recently been seeing quite a few of these “Literal Translations” of music videos, and some of them are really good.  Today I’m introducing you to one that actually made me laugh out loud a couple of different times. 

Hope you like it!

*If any of my real-life friends or family are reading this, I’ll bet you thought it was going to be yet another one of my rants about people who misuse the word “literally.” Don’t worry. I suspect that post is still forthcoming.

Signs of the Times

Since starting this blog, I have finally found a way to vent my ongoing frustrations of misspelled and mispunctuated signs.  It seems like they’re everywhere.  In fact, did you know that an apostrophe that is incorrectly used to pluralize a word actually has a name?  It’s often referred to as a “grocer’s apostrophe” because they’re so common on hand-made signs at markets.

It turns out that I’m not the only one who is keeping tabs on these things.  Here is a huge section of a website dedicated to just such grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

The best, though, is the guys documented by ABC News as they traveled cross-country and not only found and photographed signs, but also corrected them!  The one above is captioned “a very relaxed apostrophe.”

Even though I generally dislike misspelled signs, sometimes they do encourage a little self-satisfied grin on my part.  Like this one from Odee.com:

 

If you happen upon some fun misspelled or mispunctuated signs, send me a picture at lornadoone at berrybrewer dot com, and maybe they’ll be featured here!

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