Friday, February 23, 2007

Boogle brain buster (#342, Topic L)

I am at the beach with very little to do. Reading local free weeklies, I came across a feature captioned above. I first encountered Boogle perhaps half a century ago, when I was walking in downtown Chicago one afternoon. At that time, Boogle was brand new; its inventor, in promoting his game, set up shop at one of the bookstores, complete with a young lady at the store's entrance, inviting passers-by to play a game with the inventory. The prize was to be a set of this new game. Well, with very little to do, and with cost-benefit clearly in my favor, I took the challenge and sat down in one of the seats. Three or 4 other contestants were already seated. So, after I joined in, the game was on, which lasted probably 5 minutes (after its rules were explained to ghe group). As luck had it, I was able to form, among other words, two 7-letter words (the longer the word, the higher the score). Thus, I beat the inventor hands down, and was given a set of the game. Later, I gave the game to our son. In today's feature, the 16 characters (4x4) are as follows:
CMME
ORTN
OAAF
BTLE
Each 3-letter word is worth 1 point; 4-letter, 2 points; 5-letter, 3-points; 6-letter, 4 points; 7-letter, 6points; 8-letter, 10 points; 9+-letter, 15 points. To form a word, letters must be contiguous; thus, COAT is a good word (2 points) but COME is not. Today's feature also has a feature not in the original game (when the 16 words are randomed formed) -- by putting "special-busting words into the grid of letters." The puzzle contains an 11-letter word beginnigh with C, a 9-letter word beginning with E, and a 7-letter word beginning with T. I was able to form the 11-letter word as well as the 9-letter word, but I could not find the 7-letter word beginning with T. I then spent about 10 minutes and was able to form 19 3-letter words, 17 4-letter words, four 5-letter words, and two 6-letter words. Adding the 11-letter word and the 9-letter word, my score was 103. (Scoring 151+ points, one is rated Champ; 101-150, Expert; 61-100, Pro; 31-60, Gamer; 21-30, Rookie, 11-20, Amateur; and 0-10, "Try Again.") I probably shall return to DC before the next issue of this weekly is out, so I shall not have a chance to see how this 7-letter word beginning with T looks like.

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