The strange, the bizarre and the unexpected

[floppers]

and now for something completely different....

On Sunday my Mother was explaining why she had to cut down her cherry tree, as it turns out it was rotten on the inside, so it was a good thing. Mother had to cut down the cherry tree because of the squirrels, which we do not have in Australia. The squirrels (which we do not have) were using the cherry tree as a bridge from the garage to the shed. It was suggested that she might mean possums, which we have a proliferation of. "Oh, yes", said Mother, "the possums, but really possums and squirrels are nearly the same thing though".

It was Mothers Day, so there were 15 people in the room, which made for a noisy environment, and Mother misheard what I said next...which was, "I really prefer squirrels though, as long as they don't have rabies (which we also don't have in Australia)". "Oh!", said Mother, "I wouldn't want squirrels covered in gravy either, what a dreadful mess that would make!".

Words twisted, mind boggled, have a nice day!

[floppers]

sounds like an ep of Horrible Histories...

[jbud1980]

DonGuy47 I see where you went with this. Haha!

[DonGuy47]

Currently, in the 4x4 total points monthly competition, the top four scorers' "best words" are WATERBOARDINGS, RECAUTERIZATIONS, BLEEDINGS, AND MEDICALIZATION. Theme detected!

[lalatan]

Lol Spike. I'd bet on PHOTOPALAEOCURRENTS. It'd be when someone took pics of them.

Isn't it crazy to see various players getting high words scores now? While clicking through games I've never even seen the usernames of many of best/longest record holders before. I remember when we started out there was 1 page of users who got 38+ pts in the best words list. Now there are 5-6 pages of them every month.

[Spike1007]

I just found PHOTOCURRENTS (24 pts). I didn't keep it, but maybe we should be on the lookout for PALAEOPHOTOCURRENTS or PHOTOPALAEOCURRENTS.

[lalatan]

I just played a board where I spotted PALAEOCURRENTS and had to try it. Strangely it was only worth 16 pts but I kept it anyway since it's such a Frankenstein word as well as PALAEOCURRENT being an oxymoron.
Definition: A geological feature that indicates the direction of flow of water in the geologic past

Edit: I just found SEAMANLIKENESSES for 31 pts. Can't say I've ever used that in a sentence.

[floppers]

which is humourous, because it shouldn't be a pleasant surprise by definition...

[Razorflame]

I found TRANSMOGRIFICATIONS on a board a few days ago, was pleasantly surprised to find it.

[DrPlacebo]

After finding HEROISMS on a board, I tried HEROISE, because why not? It counted.

[floppers]

If more people in the world speak English, as compared to American, then MYTHOLOGISERS should be more common that the Z version. In the meantime, the multilingual amongst us (at least those of us who speak both English and (North) American) get both in the game, if both letters are available...and they often are. You guys should consider yourselves lucky, because you wouldn't have the metre/meter triggers that the English speaker/writer has.

[Spike1007]

We Americans do like our myths. That brings up the question of whether MYTHOLOGIZERS should be more common than MYTHOLOGISERS. Unfortunately I didn't check that.

[floppers]

Yaaaaay!!! Very entertained by that concept mdyak! It's 6.33am here (possibly tomorrow), and I don't usually laugh (or even speak) before 7.30am!

Whether the British spelling is rarer that the American spelling would have to be based on whether the game is based predominently in English, or the American dialect. That ENUF is accepted would seem to be an indication that UK slang/dialect can become common usage. It would be fun to know more about who/how the dictionary is compiled.

[mdyak]

The other day though, I got DEMYTHOLOGISERS for 18 points (wide), and DEMYTHOLOGIZERS for 31 (ultra-rare). That threw me.

Maybe Americans just don't talk or write about DEMYTHOLOGIZERS very much while people in the UK use this word a lot.

[Spike1007]

While it annoys me a little, I'm kind of used to the idea that the singular can be accepted while the plural isn't (or vice versa). It bothers me more when dropping or adding the -S or -ES changes the rarity. (I go for high average points/word, and if I get a great plural, I'll agonize over whether I should try the singular & risk blowing my average for the board.)

Early on in my WordTwist career, I thought that British spellings should somehow be classified as more rare than American spellings. (OK, that shows a little cultural bias. I'm sure the British see it the other way.) Anyway, after a while, I came to the conclusion that the "rareness" was pretty much the same either way, although there were point differences due to using -OU- rather than -O- or -S- rather than -Z-. The other day though, I got DEMYTHOLOGISERS for 18 points (wide), and DEMYTHOLOGIZERS for 31 (ultra-rare). That threw me.