We at Commentarama were so impressed with the responses to AndrewPrice's Favorite Word Question last week that we put our heads together and devised a writing challenge using all of your favorite words.
[Well, that and AndrewPrice finally found that missing box of invisible t-shirts he ordered months ago. Can you believe it was right where he left it! The t-shirts were LawHawkSF's idea and Andrew added the logo. I tried to talk them out of the invisible t-shirt idea, because I knew that it would be an inventory nightmare, but you know, LawHawk and Andrew. Once they get an idea into their heads they just won't let go. But I digress.]
The Favorite Word Challenge Rules
Below is the list of everybody's favorite words. Your challenge is to write a story, a poem, a haiku, a fairy tale, or even the perfect sentence, whatever, incorporating the words from the favorite words list.
You can write in any style you want HOWEVER there are two (2) rules:
1. You MUST use words on the OFFICIAL FAVORITE WORD LIST
2. You MUST use "antidisestablishmentarianism" and "onomatopoeia"
AND two (2) chances for a Bonus and/or Extra Credit:
1.A 100 point bonus points will be award to anyone who can use ALL the words
2.Extra credit will be awarded for bribes.*
We accept the fact that you Commentarama-ians don't like to follow rules, but we do have our limits. There is no limit on style or the number of entries per person, BUT try to limit each entry to a manageable size.
Judges will award points based on the following totally objective criteria:
1. 1 point for each OFFICIAL FAVORITE WORD used
2. Up to 10 points for creative use of the favorite words
3. 5 point each for any approved "extra credit"**
4. 100 points for using all 36 words on the OFFICIAL FAVORITE WORD LIST
The Entry(ies) with the most "extra credits"*...er..POINTS wins.
The winner(s) will be awarded prizes from our special bag of very valuable, yet invisible Commentarama logo-ed items [which Andrew misplaced too, but he promises to find before you finish your masterpieces...] I am sure Andrew and LawHawk will want to add a few words of legal-ese, but, for now, go forth and write!
*Pending approval from our Legal Department
**Pending approval of the approval from our Legal Department
OFFICIAL FAVORITE WORD LIST
antidisestablishmentarianism
bard
calliope
coffee and fishing
dwell
dwindle
eureka
funner
funnily
gesticulate
Grace
Lamb
lilac
Logic
lollipop
masticates
matriculate
Melody
Mississippi
muddle
murderee
nomenclature
onomatopoeia
please
plop
poverty
propinquity
Quintessential
renaissance
requiem
segue
simplicity
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
thank you
troll
winner
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Favorite Word Challenge!
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17 comments:
Everyone, just post your entries here or in an open thread later in the week. Good luck. :-)
Bev: This may take me awhile. I don't know that many words. Love the concept--a true brain-teaser.
Bev and Andrew: In the meantime, I'm just going to print all the words, in order, and submit it to Congress to see if they read it before they vote on it. LOL
Eureka, Calliope!
Antidisestablishmentarianism muddles logic.
Thank you,
Onomatopoeia
Requiem for a Troll
There once was a troll named Lollipop;
Who was unfamiliar with logic but schooled in computer plop;
Try as he might,
he could not matriculate;
So he cooked lamb to masticate,
All the while muddled in obvious poverty and propinquity;
Funnily, a renaissance troll he would always be.
P.S. Who the he** offered up Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?!
Eureka! Again down the Mississippi -- coffee, fishing -- a renaissance of the South. The clattering of pots from the kitchen, a person’s step, the coo of a dove, a sort of onomatopoeia giving texture to life’s soundtrack. Lazy in the summer’s heat, the sound of a calliope playing some poor chap’s requiem could be heard. Somehow the melody sounds so familiar as you slowly doze off. Three voices could be heard, “not the Lollipop Guild, those evil bastards.” The perfect segue of the song and dance group of Barry, Biden, and Nancy singing a rollicking version of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious -- in tails, canes, and top hats, the quintessential song and dance troupe -- weird. Falling still deeper into sleep, floating into darkness, an endless tunnel under a forgotten bridge, a troll named Auntie-Baker of Pie has been known to dwell. Propinquity to Auntie is something no one can desire as it continually masticates its pie while seeming to gesticulate, with its hoof to come closer, its words muddle, using no logic. Then suddenly in my dream, the sun burst, and the neighbors kid, Grace, was screaming, “It’s a lamb on a lilac blanket.” Confused, I had to plop down, thinking to myself,” Please, shut the hell up!” Startled awake by what I had seen, I awoke to a kind of antidisestablishmentarianism, a separation, if you will, to a funnily or awkward place where a bard was speaking in soothing tones, to matriculate to my environs a day earlier. I felt like a spiritual murderee, a part of the nomenclature, a poverty of the soul that has no winner. Thank you and goodnight : )
my guess is that you are relieved i didn't make that comment about my fav word. oh the embarrassment ;)
oh, and i have a troll that came by way of this blog. i haven't seen him here, but he's been fed all day long over at my place. got any troll-be-gone i can borrow?!
Stan, That really reminds me of some of the stuff I read in American Lit. Very impressive!
Writer X, Requiem for a troll! Ha! I love it.
Patti, A troll? From here? I thought we are all up on our shots. . .
The simplicity of the lamb born long ago in poverty-
Among the blooms of a spring lilac He appeared bearing Grace.
Once sung by bards of the renaissance the voices now dwindle.
Perhaps he dwells along a quiet sunrise by the great Mississippi where three gather drinking coffee and fishing. Pleasing Him.
Katie Couric, Keith Olbermann and Chris Mathews announcing the Republicans have taken control of both houses of Congress.
Cris D, very nicely done!
Everyone is certainly rising to the challenge!
(Patti, I don't know who that is.)
StanH: Now THAT was impressive.
The murduree was sprawled on the front seat of his car. In close propinquity, on the passenger seat, was an enormous trophy proclaiming that Mason Durst was the bonus round winner of the fourth annual What’s in a Word award.
Detective Melody looked at his partner, Detective Grace. “What in the name of all dwindling logic is that?”
Grace was regarding the trophy with awe. “This, Melody, is a triumph. Maybe you wouldn’t know about the What’s in a Word contest, what with you matriculating from Mississippi and all, but this award represents the quintessential renaissance bard of the modern age.”
“It’s a poetry contest?” Melody asked, wishing his partner would, at some point, segue into simplicity when it came to the nomenclature of speaking with his coworkers. But, it wasn’t worth dwelling on, after all, he’d been muddling through so far, although it was far from a field of lilacs working with Grace. Sometimes he suspected the chief had put them together because of their names.
“Not exactly. It’s a word contest, where the object is to create either the most words or the longest words off of three beginning letters in a minute and a half. They shout eureka and gesticulate. It’s really exciting.”
“Uh, huh.” Melody rubbed his chin. “Coffee and fishing sounds funner to me. So, it looks like our word champ was strangled, with his own chain.” He opened the rear door and retrieved a lollipop from the floor of the otherwise immaculate carpet. The lollipop’s stick was completely bent out of shape and dented.
“The murder weapon,” Grace said. “Just plopped right there. Plop is a perfect example of an onomatopoeia, by the way. Criminals show such a poverty of intellect these days.”
Melody nodded. “I bet we’ll find the killer’s DNA on this.”
And they did. While the requiem for Mason Durst was played, funnily enough, by a calliope at his funeral, detectives Grace and Melody arrested Megan Wolf who they had found at home, masticating on lamb. The motive? Apparently, at the end of the night, the judges had ruled against Megan’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious answer in favor of Mason’s antidisestablishmentarianism for the longest overall word bonus round.
“Which was completely unfair,” Megan said, in her defense. “My word was clearly longer, and if it wasn’t in the dictionary, it should have been.”
Melody shook his head as Grace nodded sympathetically and put the lollipop killer in the back of the squad car. “Watch your head, ma’am, please and thank you.”
She glared at Melody. “Don’t be such a troll!”
Melody agreed with Grace that the retort was unworthy of her obvious linguistic abilities.
And I thought I was the only one who actually enjoyed doing these in school!
Monica, "the lollipop killer" -- I love it!
I am simply in awe...
For those of you who like online word puzzles, here's a good one. It's got a built-in timer.
http://www.uclickgames.com/jumble/online/daily/tmjmf
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