Tag Archives: fun

Feb 2 2014

If Reading Were a Spectator Sport…

Just Read It

Imagine if reading were a big-time spectator sport like boxing or football:

  • Nerds would be the jocks.
  • The most popular slogan would be, “Just read it.”
  • Common advice would include, “Keep your eye on the text.”
  • Franchise teams would have names like the Chicago Verbs, Denver Hyphens, Los Angeles Chapters, Mississippi Twains, Dallas Texters, London Haiku, and Philadelphia Lyrical Wonders.
  • Fans would come to the big event shirtless and with words written across their chests and cheeks.
  • Every tail-gating party would feature poetry recitations.
  • The only injuries trainers would need to attend to would be eye soreness and backaches.
  • Close plays would be shown again in slow motion on Instant Readplay.
  • The umpire would shout, “Read Words,” at the beginning of every game.
  • The big game at the end of the season would be called the World Sentences.
  • Instead of people spending $100 to watch two guys beat their brains out for several minutes and 99 cents to read a book for many hours, thousands of spectators would pay hundreds of dollars to watch their favorite teams compete as readers for a few hours.
  • Participants would be called acathletes.
  • Acathletes would earn millions of dollars to show off their amazing reading skills.
  • Teens would dream of going on dates with the top acathletes.
  • Coaches would earn good money to teach valuable reading skills.
  • Publishers and bookstores would sponsor the teams, adding their logos to the jerseys.
  • Stores would sell expensive jerseys featuring authors, books, and acathletes.
  • At home people would watch the big event on giant e-reader screens.
  • Kids would spend their free time practicing their reading skills and would dream of becoming talented readers when they grow up.
  • People would think, “We sure have come a long way since the day of the gladiator.”

Copyright © 2014 Chris McMullen

Educators have permission to freely copy part or all of this list entitled “If Reading Were a Spectator Sport…” for non-commercial purposes in order to help promote the spirit of reading.

Aug 26 2013

Dis-a-vowel-ed (A Simple Word Puzzle)

I have a little puzzle for you. Don’t worry, it’s easy. You can figure it out. 🙂

See if you can figure out what the following puzzle says. It’s in English! Really, it is! Following the puzzle is a hint. If you need help, read the hint (but not the answer). When you want to check that you’ve solved the puzzle correctly, then you can check the answer.

PUZZLE

O cen nut omegoni why yua moght nut bi ebli tu andirstend thos!

Ell yua hevi tu du os ripleci iech vuwil woth thi vuwil thet pricidis ot, whiri thi littir ‘a’ pricidis thi littir ‘e’ (will, nut qaoti, bat thet os thi ginirel odie).

Hevi yua gut ot fogarid uat yit?

Thos os yuar lest chenci.

HINT

If you didn’t mean to read this far yet, you better lift your eyes in a hurry!

Ready or not, here comes the hint: Try reading it aloud and you might recognize some of the words. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider the title of this post, too. 🙂

SOLUTION

Here comes the solution. So if you don’t want to read it yet, look up fast. All of the consonants are correct. The vowels are correctly positioned, but each vowel has been changed. More precisely, each vowel was replaced with the vowel that follows it. For example, ‘a’ was replaced with ‘e,’ ‘e’ was replaced with ‘i,’ and so on; also, the ‘u’ was replaced with ‘a.’

For example, the word ‘idea’ becomes ‘odie.’ Note that one sentence from the puzzle has a phrase that reads, “where the letter ‘u’ precedes the letter ‘a,’” in which the ‘u’ changed to ‘a’ and the ‘a’ changed to ‘e.’

I thought about changing the ‘u’ to a ‘y’ and the ‘y’ to an ‘a,’ but only when the ‘y’ makes the vowel sound, but I decided to keep things simple. 🙂

If you had to read the solution to figure out how to solve the puzzle, it isn’t too late to see if you can now translate the puzzle text.

ANSWER

Following is the translation of the puzzle text using the technique described in the solution. Don’t read the following text unless you are ready to check your answer.

I can not imagine why you might not be able to understand this!

All you have to do is replace each vowel with the vowel that precedes it, where the letter ‘u’ precedes the letter ‘a’ (well, not quite, but that is the general idea).

Have you got it figured out yet?

This is your last chance.

Mar 11 2013

Lost! One Hour — Please Return! $$ Reward!

Missing: One Hour

Description: 60 minutes, 3600 seconds, 1/24 day, looks a little shorter while having fun and a little longer when bored

Last seen: 2 a.m. Sunday morning, March 10, 2013

If seen, please contact the owner.

$$ REWARD $$