Skip to main content
You know what happens when you don't practice for a while? You get rusty. Your fingers don't do what your brain tells them to do. Stumble, start, stumble, fumble. Your brain doesn't remember its old tricks quite as well as you'd like.

Then your rating drops about 200 points and people in the rooms with you comment about how much better you used to be. Then you get grumpy and obsessed and play for hours until you remember how to play the stupid game. Then maybe you gain back about 40 of the points.

The thing is… I really am good at this game. Boggle, that is. (I could have been talking about the clarinet, but thank god there's no rating there.) I love playing it, not only because it's fun, but because I am good at it. So I won't stay away quite so long next time. I'd hate to risk mediocrity.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Some of us could never type. We thought the game was the play, the finding of the words, the unique discoveries. Those whose only skill was typing OTTER, COTTER, ROTTER, ROTTE in .37 seconds always kind of amused us with their inflated senses of self worth. We always wondered what would happen once that was gone and those folks were forced to fend with actual brain skills. On equal footing? Your butt is mine.

-- Mr. Shlicker
listeme said…
Equal footing? We find this concept amusing, ourselves.
Anonymous said…
heh, sitting on my couch many hours later, I just "saw" the primal humor. Some folks are naturals, ourselves.

--Mr. Shlicker

Popular posts from this blog

This was in the mail: Life’s Too Short To Clean Your Own House. A lovely brochure, featuring a lovely couple, with two lovely blond children, sitting in a lovely family room. The dad is reading a book with one of the daughters. The mom is laughing over a laptop with the other daughter. A pretty picture. Short answer portion of the quiz: 1. Why did the advertising folks choose to put two girls in the picture instead of a girl and a boy? 2. Why did they choose to have the mom pose with the laptop? 3. Who cleans the housecleaners’ houses? Bonus question: are the perky college students pictured on the inside of the brochure real housecleaners or just models?
I have to confess something. I enjoy reading Anne Lamott. Okay, okay, I know that makes me more touchy-feely than I usually admit. She is very lovey. She talks about mystical things. She freely admits to praying (although she uses the F-word frequently in her books about “faith”. I like this in a person.) She talks about breathing. She is very real, and I admire this. She talks about her parents and her son with a mix of love and frustration and grumpiness. She admits, in public, in her writing, to sometimes being angry, sometimes disliking her loved ones, to having to work very hard to forgive them. I like to think I’m like her in a lot of ways, but I don’t share this ability. I can’t easily look at someone I love, look them in the eyes, and say “I’m really angry with you.” “I am mad.” “That was a bad thing you did. To me.” Instead, I’m the sort that says, “Oh, gosh, I’m sure you didn’t mean to run over my dog. It’s okay. I was meaning to get rid of that old thing soo...
Censorship update : According to Em's civics assignment: " Inappropriate news topics will not be accepted. If you are unsure of what is considered appropriate, please consult your teacher or your parents." (The assignment sheet printed that sentence in bold type.) Her entire summary: Source : Washingtonpost.com Headline : House Defeats Gay Marriage Amendment Main Idea : Debating whether or not gay marriages should be banned Summary : People in the House of Representatives debate about banning gay marriage, and it turns out they won't be. :) (Penciled smiley.) Connection : This connects to civics because it has to do with making laws and debating which are big parts of the government. Now, besides the fact that this is a danged sketchy summary and I'd like to throttle her for that, the only opinion she offers is the little smiley. She is brief and matter-of-fact. Practically boring! If anything, the article that she summarized is even ...