Subject: acka-games-digest V3 #40
From: [email-masked] (acka-games-digest)
To: [email-masked]

acka-games-digest       Thursday, March 12 1998       Volume 03 : Number 040

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 00:40:41 -0500 (EST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Fictionary: End Round 12

And the "vegetable or mineral" round comes to an end...

The correct definition of phlogopite was:

1. A brown form of mica consisting of hydrous silicate of potassium and
magnesium and aluminum.

Vynd was the player who didn't submit a definition; he was also the only
one to pick the right definition.  else...if submitted the only definition
nobody voted for, and The Gingham Wearer submitted the only definition
two people voted for.

No. Submitter  Voted For  Old Score   Points   New Score
6.  Slakko         4          12         1        13
5.  TGW            3          12         2        14
7.  Vynd           1           1         1         2
3.  Alfvaen        5          28         1        29
1.  /dev/joe      (Br)         8         0         8
4.  breadbox       5          13         1        14
2.  else...if      6           8         0         8

All of the definitions were of the right part of speech (4 rocks + 2 plants).

breadbox, your turn.

/dev/joe

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 01:27:16 -0500 (EST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Fictionary Thoughts

What would be a great Ing word, I was thinking, would be one where there is
some error in one of the official lookup dictionaries.  I remembered a
"Call Our Bluff" in Games Magazine in 1993 that dealt with dictionary
errors; as is typical, most of the stuff is real.

Upon finding the article, I found that none of the dictionary errors
listed there were from the dictionary which makes up the bulk of both
of our official lookup dictionaries, and none of the errors listed
there seem to have been in this one.  Most of the ones they list were
from Webster's 2nd, 1934.  Some examples:

The word "dord" is defined as "density".  This is an error due to
transcribing a file card that said "D or d" (i.e., a capital or lower
case d) could stand for "density".

The etymology for "jicama" suggests to compare the entries "jicara"
and "quauhxicalli". The marvelous word "quauhxicalli" appears nowhere
else in the dictionary.

In the entry for "sensifacient", they included the pronunciation, part of
speech, and etymology, and forgot the definition.

The pronunciation for "phelloplastic" is given as "felopalstik".
Webster's 3rd, in the entry for "balge yellow", avoids repeating this
mistake by labeling it "pronunciation unknown".

There's a great description of how the word "abacot" got into Webster's
(1st) New International Dictionary (1909).  It was a misspelling of a
misspelling of a misspelling of a word which appeared in print once.
Each misspelling was the result of a lexicographer copying (badly) from
a competitor's dictionary.  As I understand it, in those days there
were a fair number of intentional errors and non-words or questionable
words strewn throughout the dictionaries so that they could tell if
another dictionary was copying them.

The dictionary we have on-line is Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary,
1913, which I believe was just Webster's 1st with a lot of mistakes (like
abacot) cleaned up.  Wasn't there a move to add the on-line Webster's
10th collegiate at www.m-w.com to the list of valid lookup dictionaries,
so we'd have something newer?  What ever happened to that? (It doesn't
seem to be listed in the G&C rule suite.)

/dev/joe

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 02:17:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Spades: R2 T10/T11

On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Aaron V. Humphrey wrote:

> 
> > > 10 of diamonds.
> 
> > Ten of Clubs.
> 
> Eight of Spades.

Queen of Spades.

and for my next trick:

4 of Spades.

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Yr PhD(PMa) - .Nomic Elector, Frgn Minister, HP(Morpork)
Acka - President "Gumball" Web-Harfer RuneMaker ChessUmpire Map-Harfer

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 02:19:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Fictionary Thoughts

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> The dictionary we have on-line is Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary,
> 1913, which I believe was just Webster's 1st with a lot of mistakes (like
> abacot) cleaned up.  Wasn't there a move to add the on-line Webster's
> 10th collegiate at www.m-w.com to the list of valid lookup dictionaries,
> so we'd have something newer?  What ever happened to that? (It doesn't
> seem to be listed in the G&C rule suite.)

It was rejected as part of the proposal which tried to allow people to
select words not in the official dictionaries, but whose meanings were in
the definition lookup dictionaries, for Fictionary.

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Yr PhD(PMa) - .Nomic Elector, Frgn Minister, HP(Morpork)
Acka - President "Gumball" Web-Harfer RuneMaker ChessUmpire Map-Harfer

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 02:24:43 -0500 (EST)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Fictionary: End Round 12

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> And the "vegetable or mineral" round comes to an end...
> 
> The correct definition of phlogopite was:
> 
> 1. A brown form of mica consisting of hydrous silicate of potassium and
> magnesium and aluminum.

That's a pretty bad dictionary if it has three terms in a list separated
by two ands, not one comma and one and (or even two commas and one and).
Where did you get this definition?

> /dev/joe

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Yr PhD(PMa) - .Nomic Elector, Frgn Minister, HP(Morpork)
Acka - President "Gumball" Web-Harfer RuneMaker ChessUmpire Map-Harfer

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 02:58:26 -0500 (EST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Fictionary: End Round 12

Slakko asked:
> > 1. A brown form of mica consisting of hydrous silicate of potassium and
> > magnesium and aluminum.
> 
> That's a pretty bad dictionary if it has three terms in a list separated
> by two ands, not one comma and one and (or even two commas and one and).
> Where did you get this definition?

From the 1st lookup dictionary listed in the rules, which does have some
additional definitions besides the 1913 dictionary; this one was from
something it calls WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn).  I specifically chose this
definition because the two ands looked odd and kind of like something
somebody might submit.

/dev/joe

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 08:17:03 -0500 (EST)
From: Joshua Herreshoff <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Spades: R2 T10/T11

> 4 of Spades.

Jack of Spades

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 08:31:37 -0500 (EST)
From: AARON KEESLER <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: GAD Round 9

We're getting close, Grabbers... I can feel it in the air :)  What
better indicator do we have than the fact that both notorious donkey
cover-ers became donkey grabbers this Round?  :)

Let's hit the slopes:

Guy Fawkes opened with an attempted grab at The Gingham Wearer's donkey.
 In addition, Slakko opened with an attempted grab at The Gingham
Wearer's donkey (shades of some previous round, no doubt...)  The
Gingham Wearer snickered as he watched them untangle their lariats,
while patting his blanket-covered donkey.

That Guy From Hawaii tried to grab Goldenmean's donkey, out of some sort
of desire for revenge.  Goldenmean repulsed his attack with his covering
blanket.  And then That Guy From Hawaii got his comeuppance when
breadbox snatched his donkey.

K 2 covered his donkey.  In fact, K 2 covered his donkey twice, just to
make sure the Wrangler got the message. No worries, K 2... he did.  Rex
Mundi also covered his donkey.

Hibert stood around staring at his donkey, a bold and risky move so late
in the game.

Current Scores:
The Gingham Wearer - 4
breadbox - 1
Guy Fawkes - 1
Rex Mundi - 1
Goldenmean - 1
Everyone else - 0

The shorter-by-one-again GAL:
breadbox
The Gingham Wearer
Goldenmean
Guy Fawkes
K 2
Rex Mundi
Hibert
Slakko

Just 8 people left... and the tension is mounting.  Reply with your
moves, Grabbers!

- ------------------
Aaron Keesler
Lotus Notes Administrator
Intranet Administrator
Adtran, Inc.
- ------------------

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:04:28 -0500 (EST)
From: "Tom Walmsley" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Word un-association round 7 ends, round 8 begins

Round seven is over and things are really hotting up. The game mechanism is
working well, which is surprising considering this is effectively the
play-test game. My two concerns are the public posting thing, which can
easily be fixed, and how the game mechanism will hold out with more players.
Anyhow, this round I am accepting /dev/joe's link of "two" but not Hubert's
link of "dance". To me the link from "dance --> pair is a bit too tenuous.

The score's are now:

Slakko: 6
/dev/joe: 7
Hubert: 7

Round 8 starts now with /dev/joe as linker. E must link from "pair".

TGW.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:20:43 -0500 (EST)
From: "Joseph W. DeVincentis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Word un-association round 8

> Round 8 starts now with /dev/joe as linker. E must link from "pair".

The uh? word is:  start

/dev/joe

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:24:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Duncan Richer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Word un-association round 8

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> > Round 8 starts now with /dev/joe as linker. E must link from "pair".
> 
> The uh? word is:  start

I link with "off".

People "pair off" when splitting into groups of 2.
A common expression is also to "start off" being in some situation or
other.

- -- 
Duncan C. "" Richer aka
Slakko (Lost) Warner - http://dcr24.quns.cam.ac.uk/ - Queens' College
Cambridge, 1st Yr PhD(PMa) - .Nomic Elector, Frgn Minister, HP(Morpork)
Acka - President "Gumball" Web-Harfer RuneMaker ChessUmpire Map-Harfer

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 15:41:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Hubert <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Spades: R2 T10/T11

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Joshua Herreshoff wrote:

> > 4 of Spades.
> 
> Jack of Spades

King of Spades.  :-p

- -Hubert

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy. 

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Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 16:20:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Hubert <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Acka: Word un-association round 8

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, Joseph W. DeVincentis wrote:

> > Round 8 starts now with /dev/joe as linker. E must link from "pair".
> 
> The uh? word is:  start

OK, this is another interesting one.  I link with "re."  The words
"repair" and "restart" are obvious, but "re" as a word (Re: a drop of
golden sun) has nothing to do with either.  I guess I'm just trying to
figure out exactly _how_ associated words have to be.  This is fun.

- -Hubert

The Lottery: a tax for people who can't do the math. 

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 21:44:52 -0500 (EST)
From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Subject: Re: Acka: Spades: R2 T10/T11

> > > 4 of Spades.

> > Jack of Spades

> King of Spades.  :-p

3 of Spades.

- --
- --Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--The Offspring:Ixnay On The Hombre
Current Book--Robert Charles Wilson:The Harvest
S is for Susan who perished of fits, T is for Titus who flew into bits.

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End of acka-games-digest V3 #40
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