Comments on: Weekend Genius Challenge #15: Ladder Games

By: atoms

atoms — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 08:07:46 +0000

FLOSS

flops
clops
claps
clams
crams
trams
teams
reams
reads
rends
rinds

FINDS

minds
mends
meads
leads
leans
loans
loons

LOONY

goony
goody
moody
moods
mooks
mocks
macks
packs
pacts

FACTS

fasts
fests
pests
peats
plats
plots
plops
props
prows

GROWS

grown
brown
brawn

BRAIN

it’s shorter than some, but i like to think there’s a message in there somewhere. i’d love to sport a pluto shirt, size medium. thanks

By: Nathan Miller

Nathan Miller — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:38:21 +0000

“Mentalfloss” in English Gematria [a=1,b=2] is 136. So I’ve constructed a chain 136 words long, using only words from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.
My favorites are “hurdy” followed by “gurdy” (23,24), the musical instrument, and “hocus” followed by “pocus” (41,42). Also, a personal touch in my best friend’s last name (picus-43), which is a type of woodpecker.
Finally, I included every letter of the alphabet. [However, 'e,' usually the most common letter, doesn't appear until #80!]

1 floss
2 flocs
3 blocs
4 blobs
5 boobs
6 bombs
7 bombo
8 bimbo
9 limbo
10 limby
11 Libby
12 lobby
13 looby
14 loopy
15 loppy
16 poppy
17 puppy
18 pulpy
19 gulpy
20 gully
21 gurly
22 hurly
23 hurdy
24 gurdy
25 gardy
26 garda
27 Ganda
28 ganja
29 zanja
30 zanza
31 Panza
32 panda
33 pandy
34 candy
35 canny
36 carny
37 corny
38 horny
39 horns
40 Horus
41 hocus
42 pocus
43 picus
44 picks
45 pinks
46 pinko
47 pinto
48 pints
49 pants
50 punts
51 putts
52 putty
53 nutty
54 nutsy
55 gutsy
56 gussy
57 gusty
58 lusty
59 lasty
60 tasty
61 tarty
62 tarts
63 warts
64 wards
65 wands
66 winds
67 wings
68 sings
69 songs
70 tongs
71 tonus
72 bonus
73 bolus
74 bolts
75 boots
76 blots
77 slots
78 slits
79 suits
80 suite
81 quite
82 quirt
83 quilt
84 built
85 build
86 guild
87 guile
88 guide
89 glide
90 glade
91 grade
92 grave
93 grape
94 crape
95 craps
96 crops
97 coops
98 corps
99 cores
100 coxes
101 boxes
102 bones
103 bonds
104 bends
105 mends
106 sends
107 seeds
108 sheds
109 shads
110 shade
111 spade
112 spare
113 spore
114 sport
115 spurt
116 spurs
117 sours
118 soars
119 roars
120 rears
121 hears
122 heart
123 peart
124 pears
125 peers
126 beers
127 beets
128 beats
129 brats
130 brags
131 drags
132 draws
133 drawl
134 brawl
135 brawn
136 brain

Should I win, I would like a Men’s Medium Pavlov Shirt.

Thanks,
Nathan

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:12:22 +0000

I vote for #14 Ryan, that was absurdely long, but hilarious, and used the best words, and also the dirtiest. Bravo!

Kelly

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:28:46 +0000

Three and four letter words mixed in?!? That’s a twist that I didn’t think was allowed… in the odd event that you decide to spoil me with a less than perfect entry prize, I’d prefer a women’s XL gregor mendel’s peas shirt… I’d love to be SPOILed, since this is my first time on your site… Thanks!

By: Mej

Mej — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:10:31 +0000

This isn’t as long as some of the others, but I was pretty excited to get it.

FLOSS
FLOWS
FLOWN
FROWN
GROWN
GROIN
GRAIN
BRAIN

By: Bethany

Bethany — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:54:33 +0000

Here is my word ladder. I did something different and decided to use only words that begin with S, apart from a few F and B words at the beginning and end. The whole thing is 70 words.

FLOSS
FLOPS
SLOPS
SLAPS
SLIPS
SLITS
SLUTS
SLOTS
SLATS
SLATE
STATE
STAVE
STARE
STAKE
STOKE
SPOKE
SPORE
SPARE
SPADE
SPACE
SPICE
SLICE
SLICK
STICK
STUCK
STACK
STANK
STUNK
STINK
STING
SLING
SLANG
SLUNG
SWUNG
SWING
SWINE
SHINE
SHONE
STONE
STOVE
STORE
STOLE
STALE
SHALE
SHAME
SHADE
SHAPE
SHAKE
SHARE
SHARD
SHARP
SHARK
STARK
STORK
SPORK
SPORT
SKORT
SKIRT
SHIRT
SHORT
SHORN (old word for sheared)
SHOWN
SHOWS
SLOWS
BLOWS
BLOWN
BROWN
BRAWN
BRAIN

If I win, I’d like a women’s large Beethoven shirt, please :)

By: Alicia

Alicia — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:56:32 +0000

I’ll try to do this right…
1.floss
2.flows
3.flow
4.flows
5.fled
6.sled
7.sleds
8.slids
9.slide
10.slime
11.slim
12.slap
13.snap
14.snip
15.snipe
16.sipe
17.ripe
18.rape
19.cape
20.cap
21.nap
22.rap
23.rasp
24.grasp
25.grass
26.brass
27.brase (Norwegian for crash)
28.brace
29.race
30.face
31.fact
32.pact
33.sack
34.snack
35.shack
36.smack
37.mack
38.mace
39.lace
40.late
41.fate
42.flate (norwegian for plain)
43.flat
44.fat
45.cat
46.cab
47.lab
48.lap
49.laps
50.maps
51.mats
52.mat
53.mate
54.make
55.cake
56.rake
57.rase
58.case
59.cane
60.can
61.ran
62.rat
63.rate
64.late
65.plate
66.slate
67.slat
68.sat
69.scat
70.scab
71.scan
72.scam
73.slam
74.blam
75.blat
76.bat
77.bait
78.bant
79.rant
80.rent
81.bent
82.pent
83.pant
84.paint
85.pain
86.rain
87.main
88.gain
89.grain
90.BRAIN
91.bran
92.ban
93.pan
94.pane
95.lane
96.land
97.sand
98.send
99.mend
100.mind
101.find
102.fend
103.fent (hungerian for up)
104.fant (Slovenian for boy)
105.fanta (the soda)
106.santa
107.santi
108.sant
109.slant
110.plant
112.plan
113.plane
114.pane
115.sane
116.same
117.lame
118.flame
119.flase
120.glase
121.glass
122.gloss
123.floss
ok so i think i got it all maybe.
sorry i went from floss to brain and back to floss again, i got 90 words to floss though. can i have a pavolov small tee please? thank you.

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:54:22 +0000

I’m reading Mental FLOSS after returning
from Ecuadorean adventure not to GLOSS over, but many bus rides smelled GROSS and opened this blog to find my list was almost same as AVR’s posting, so it GROWS to include GROWN language like Kmanpat’s posting, and I must say the GROIN is an important area in giving one a poetic edge but we ate many GRAINs and fruits… and spent 18 hours in airports yesterday: it has affected my BRAIN!! We didn’t take any TRAINs, but we did hike some TRAILs in the mountains and my knees began to feel FRAIL. Luckily our eyesight was good, so we didn’t need BRAIL(e) to read our e-mails
We did enjoy BROILed fish; we didn’t see any BPOIL for sale, and when we returned I was happy to find that the papaya in the refrigerator did not SPOIL. From here I’ve got no new ideas, sorry.

in the odd event: Easy as 3.14… XL

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:08:09 +0000

Another mistake I found on my list:

I repeated the word QUIRT. The first QUIRT is supposed to be QUIRE. My bad.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:01:15 +0000

Eileen, thank you so much so seeing that. I had DAWNS in my original list. Don’t know what happened.

And I’m not good, I just had a lot of free time yesterday. And trust me it was a painful (but fun) process.