Mind-Boggling

Last night I learned many new things. For starters, I learned several new three- and four-letter words, including aga, haw, and frag. (Frag is the most interesting: "To intentionally kill a higher-ranking member of one's military unit during wartime, usually with a hand grenade.") I learned that when my friend CL's homemade brownies are cut into bite-size pieces, I am less able to exercise good judgment regarding when to stop eating them. Most importantly (and to my chagrin), I learned that, when competing against writers and grad students studying English, I'm not the Boggle champion I thought I was. In fact, I'm barely in the game.

This revelation notwithstanding, Boggle Night at CL's was a fun way to spend a Wednesday evening. Who wouldn't want to pass four hours scanning randomly selected letter cubes for words like pea, peas, egg, eggy, moon, moony, and, in smarty-pants JD's case, plural? I would guess most people, actually; but fortunately, those people weren't at CL's last night (with the exception of her friend S, who looked like he'd rather be standing in line at the post office two days before Christmas, poor guy).

I love Boggle. It's a simple, challenging game. There's no fake money to be acquired; no stupid, shiny, plastic game pieces to be moved monotonously about a flimsy gameboard; and no complex system of oppressive rules. In fact, the only rules of Boggle that I can think of are Don't look at someone else's word list and Don't keep writing once time's up. There are some limits, of course, on the types of words that can earn points. Initialisms, acronyms, and proper nouns, for instance, won't get you anywhere. Neither will two-letter words or words that don't appear in any of the major dictionaries. (You'd be surprised how generous most dictionaries are, though. We found dost and naw and gat in there last night, to name just a few.) Other than that, it's all about staring silently at the Boggle pieces until a word pops out at you. When it does, you write it down. Except that it's a little more active than that (for me, anyway). It's less waiting for a word to appear than forcing hundreds of combinations of letters together in one's brain until one such combination yields a useable English word. (It's so frustrating to spot chien or hola and not be able to get credit for it!)

Boggle offers nerds, English majors, and other like-minded word-lovers a chance to openly revere the language. As I said to S later that night, after the fierce Boggle competition was over and we were sleepily tucking ourselves into bed, Boggle is a celebration of words. Even ordinary words! In Boggle, the word often isn't just a lowly adverb, it's a valuable two-point earner! I like how, as each game player reads off her word list, those listening "oooh" and "ahhh" at some of the better finds. JeK's two-point agony earned some praise last night, as did my one-point (but hard-to-find) urge.

Which brings me to another point: Boggle is fun, yet so civilized! What other game can you think of that involves (and requires) absolute silence for three straight minutes? The noisy rattle of the letter cubes inside the Boggle box contrasts nicely with the intense silence that follows. Afterward, everybody's congratulating everybody else on finding unique, long, or hard-to-find words. It's a big lovefest, really. Just the kind of game a nonconfrontational sort like me is most fond of!

At this point you're thinking, "My god, M. You couldn't sound like more of an enormous dork right now. Honestly, stop writing, before you implode into a big, sludgy, geeky mass." But here's the thing: There are so many others like me! Today at work, some of S's coworkers expressed disappointment and a smidge of hurt feelings because they hadn't been invited to the Big Boggle Bash. And these people work in television, for chrissakes! They're cool! Hip! Young! With it! Furthermore, one of my twentysomething coworkers, A, has told me she participates in Boggle Nights with her friends as well. And my mom recently snagged her mom's (ancient) Boggle set for herself. So you see, there's a quiet little Boggle Movement going on behind the scenes. Nerds, dorks, geeks, writers, grad students, English majors, and all other manner of word lovers: Unite, and play Boggle!
(unite = two points)