Or so I thought.

I took this simple little quiz and was appalled at my results.  There were 17 quotes listed, and in the 5 minutes provided, I could only identify 7 of them.  (They even had the author’s initials listed as a clue for each.)  I may have to revoke my own word-nerd street cred after that abysmal showing.

So, now I’m curious.  How many of them can each of you get right?  C’mon.  Humor me.  It won’t take more than five minutes since there’s a timer and everything; and you can even count it as “work” since it’s totally writing related!

There seem to be a whole bunch of these types of games on this site called Sporcle, but the one I’m talking about is the Classic Quotes game.

The American Novel symbolism quiz.

Fun Trivia’s Literature Quizzes

So far I’ve taken quizzes for Clan of the Cave Bear and A Handmaid’s Tale. I am officially cutting myself off for the day, because things could take a ridiculous turn for the unproductive.  I’m pretty sure you can even create your own quizzes.  You know, in case sitting around all day taking them isn’t geeky enough for you.

I always kind of sucked at Wordless Wednesday.  I’d find a great picture and then want to comment on it, share my reasons for posting it, or whatever.  What can I say, I string words together for a living.

So, I decided to implement my own “Wordy Wednesday” feature on the Other Stuff Blog.  Instead of posting a picture, I’ll post some sort of word game, and we can all play along and thumb our noses at the other kids.

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end. Put your answer in the comments without looking at what other people have said.

1.  _abe_

2.  _rac_

3.  _as_

4.  _viscerat_

I always kind of sucked at Wordless Wednesday.  I’d find a great picture and then want to comment on it, share my reasons for posting it, or whatever.  What can I say, I string words together for a living.

So, I decided to implement my own “Wordy Wednesday” feature on the Other Stuff Blog.  Instead of posting a picture, I’ll post some sort of word game, and we can all play along and thumb our noses at the other kids.

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end. Put your answer in the comments without looking at what other people have said.

1. _goraphobi_
2. _earl_
3. _axi_
4. _hirtles_

1. _tlant_
2. _ada_
3. _eldin_
4. _illo_

1. _riti_
2. _awnsho_
3. _oin_
4. _oftnes_

1. _ubia_
2. _hrea_
3. _he_
4. _are_

1. _quat_
2. _ero_
3. _inimalis_
4. _ro_

Each phrase is a clue about a particular person. You will find that two (sometimes more) letters have been replaced in the clue by stars. The missing letters will be used to begin each word of the answer. For example, if the clue was “Talksho* H*st,” you would figure out that it is a talkshow host with the initials “O.W.” (Oprah Winfrey)

1. *urrealistic *rawer: __________
2. low*r cas* poetry s*ribe: _________
3. Comman*er, Freela*ce Writing Jobs: __________
4. Jeop*rdy! Know-I*-All: __________

Leave your answers in the comments. How many can you get without looking them up?

Each phrase is a clue about a particular person. You will find that two (sometimes more) letters have been replaced in the clue by stars. The missing letters will be used to begin each word of the answer. For example, if the clue was “Talksho* H*st,” you would figure out that it is a talkshow host with the initials “O.W.” (Oprah Winfrey)

As always, leave your answers in the comments, and don’t peek at the others before you post your own. Honor system and all that…

1. Nineteen Ei*hty F*ur: __________
2. *aVinci Code *estseller: __________
3. The Hand*aid’s T*le: __________
4. Cre*tor of The Lovely Bone*: __________

Below you will find several sets of letters. If you add the same letter to both the beginning and the end of the group, you will have formed a real word. For example, _REA_ would become “DREAD” when a D is placed at the beginning and the end.

1. _eve_
2. _ar_
3. _atc_
4. _atastrophi_

How many of the following can you get? Go ahead and post your answers without looking at what other people have left in the comments. We’re using an honor code here, by the way.

1. _RIM_
2. _EDIU_
3. _OADSTE_
4. _ISBAN_

My plan since taking over has been to play some word games here on the Other Stuff blog. Theoretically, those of us reading it are writers, after all, and who likes a good word game more than we snobs? Plus, there’s the added incentive of competition, excitement, and possible recognition as a smarty-pants. What’s not to love?

I promise that this is something I planned to do long before Deb announced that she was trying to build community by holding a comments contest. Really. Truly. I even had planned to start it on October first…no joke. But, now of course, I just look like I had to come up with some hair-brained scheme to try and get people to like me enough to comment on my blog. Oh well.

Some of the games will allow for more than one correct answer, and others will require one answer to build upon others left in the comments section, so you may want to subscribe to comments to keep up, if you’re really serious about playing. For now, there won’t be any prizes other than the adulation of your peers, but we’ll see if we can’t rig something up for later if it goes well.

I’ll get this posted, and then I’ll start us off with our first game.

(Ooh, and I’d like to add that if anyone has suggestions for word games that will work well in this format, I am ALL EARS – lornadoone at berrybrewer dot com.)