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Termyn8or -> Different kind of word game (7/9/2007 7:34:47 PM)
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As some of you know my email is zzyzzwicky [number][domain][extension]. I know it's illegal to give it out here, but that is not what I intended to discuss.
ZZYZZWICKY
How does one arrive at an email like that ? I'll tell you. In my youth there was an apparent underground type of contest going on, and the goal was to see who could get to the end of the listings in the Cleveland white pages. I am not really sure where I heard about it, but I did. Eventually the phone company caught wind of it and put a stop to it. I remember the years when you could get a phone in any name. Does that sufficiently date me ? Because I kinda felt that deep down.
Once the hammer came down from the phoneco, there was an ultimate winner. The winning name was Zwight Zzyzzly. The white pages of the next year had no such entries, I know because I checked. Now in that time I came up with four or five manes that beat Zzyzzly, and over the decades this crosses my mind once in a while.
I think I have a pretty cool set of rules for this now, and actually about a half hour ago we had a discussion at the kitchen table about it with some friends. It became intriguing if we could quantify the rules. See if the goal of the contest is to get to the end of the alphabet, it is a waste of time, because Zzzzzzzzzzzz(>) would be an easy winner.
This is not the idea. The idea of a game is to provoke thought. It might take a bit of muddling through, but here goes.
It must be a plausible last name. We get alot of latitude here because of the diverse origins of our population bases in like the UK and US. If the contest were to be last in the alphabet, I would ask if Zzyzzy would be plausible. Others in the game must share in the responsibility of deciding which entries are unacceptable.
The object of the game is to find as many plausible names, pronouncable in English, that fit between Zzyzzly and the end of the alphabet. You see the game does not truly seek a winner, just as many contestants as possible. This follows the normal rules of alphabetization in the English language, and each entry is reviewed by the other participants.
For example, to kick it off I will stick a couple of entries in right now. We start at Zzyzzly OK, I have a few I came up with before Zzyzzwicky, and with this particular game they are not disqualified.
Zzyzzly (the start)
Zzyzzman
Zzyzzniac
Zzyzznoski
Zzyzznowski
Something like Zzyzzlziem we would have to put to a vote. And just because your sixth letter is not the latest in the alphabet, don't think that disqualifies the entry.
But it is indeed a different kind of word game no ? People, I think once we enjoy our favorite intoxicant and give it a bit of thought, we might have a good time here. Watch us come up with 1,000 valid names or something like that. Call Guiness.
I'm game, are you ?
T
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