The Washington Post publishes a fine array of puzzles. Although I’m primarily a cryptoquote fan, I also enjoy the Hasbro Scrabble Gram that runs every day. You are given four sets of seven tiles–each of which spells a six or seven letter word.
The following Scrabble Gram ran last week on Friday. Can you find the hidden word in the first set of tiles? (You can click on the image to make it larger, if you need).
The answer is after the cut.
(Edited to add: And yeah…I know I missed a point in katydid. I’d have to say I was a bit distracted when it came to adding things up. I’m a bit worried about some of you that you bothered to check my math.
Also, here’s a link someone posted over on BoingBoing that verifies that this is a real-honest-to-Jeebus puzzle that ran in newspapers.)
The answer is “subtext.”
1:16 pm on January 28th, 2008 1
Does it describe what Hasbro is doing to Scrabulous right now?
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1:19 pm on January 28th, 2008 2
Actually the answer is before the cut, and you spoiled it for me, dammit.
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1:21 pm on January 28th, 2008 3
Nice subtext
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1:25 pm on January 28th, 2008 4
‘Fraid the cut only shows up on the front page of the blog. If you came in here directly, then I’m afraid it bypasses the Scrabble-spoiler protections
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1:43 pm on January 28th, 2008 5
[...] A BB Reader says: “This is an actual Scrabble Gram that ran in the Washington Post last Friday. The set of first tiles seem to suggest a very dirty answer. I’m not sure how it got past their editor. (The real answer, of course, is entirely G-rated).” Link [...]
1:54 pm on January 28th, 2008 6
Thanks. You just made me happy
(via BB)
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2:18 pm on January 28th, 2008 7
[...] can all be excused if, for a moment, we thought — hoped! — that the answer was something else? [On the Red Line via BoingBoing] + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Jan 28 2008, 04:02 PM Filed [...]
2:19 pm on January 28th, 2008 8
[...] A BB Reader says: “This is an actual Scrabble Gram that ran in the Washington Post last Friday. The set of first tiles seem to suggest a very dirty answer. I’m not sure how it got past their editor. (The real answer, of course, is entirely G-rated).” Link [...]
3:19 pm on January 28th, 2008 9
[...] pointed today to this blog, which had scanned a very funny clipping from their local [...]
4:37 pm on January 28th, 2008 10
You miscalculated your score on the 2nd word, should be 76. Thanks for posting this, I love scrabble.
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5:56 pm on January 28th, 2008 11
Hah– I did all the calculations after staring at the first clue for about ten minutes in disbelief. So…I’m going to blame the dropped point on that distracting first word
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6:12 pm on January 28th, 2008 12
What is b**tsex?
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9:47 pm on January 28th, 2008 13
So the next time you hear the word “subtext”, remember its subtext.
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1:32 am on January 29th, 2008 14
[...] On the Red Line This entry was posted on 29 Jan 08 at 09:32 local time , is filed under General and tagged with [...]
5:35 am on January 29th, 2008 15
[...] The correct answer, by the way, is subtext! HA! [On the Red Line via Boing [...]
9:06 am on January 29th, 2008 16
And the bottom answer is “POOPED”
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9:21 am on January 29th, 2008 17
[...] found in the Washington Post, [...]
9:37 am on January 29th, 2008 18
HAHAHAHA! Too funny … not where my mind went first.
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1:36 pm on January 29th, 2008 19
[...] Beware of those that jump to conclusions. Such as the first answer on this interesting scrabble-gram. [...]
3:18 pm on January 29th, 2008 20
[...] On the Red Line » Nasty, Nasty Scrabble Gram: [...]
5:35 am on January 30th, 2008 21
Ha, I didn’t even see ‘buttsex’ in there until I read the comments. Brilliant.
Your anagrammy brain might be interested in the hellish scrabble mania I’ve subjected myself too in making a scrabble based cartoon – it’s up on my blog if you’re interested! (I only mention cos it’s sort of relevant )
Steve
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11:01 am on January 30th, 2008 22
[...] answer is, of course, SUBTEXT. Why, what did you think it was? Read more @ On The Red Line [via [...]
11:21 am on January 30th, 2008 23
This is great! It was also discussed in yesterday’s Gene Weingarten WaPo online chat. Very funny stuff.
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9:09 am on February 2nd, 2008 24
[...] On the Red Line » Nasty, Nasty Scrabble Gram [...]
10:29 pm on February 2nd, 2008 25
You got the bottom one wrong. It should be “ED POOPS”
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7:29 pm on February 3rd, 2008 26
Finding your websight was like finding a needle in a haystack.
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2:18 pm on February 4th, 2008 27
[...] LOL – EUTTSXB February 2, 2008 11:06 by John Found via : From On the Red Line » Nasty, Nasty Scrabble Gram [...]
3:17 am on February 5th, 2008 28
[...] bookmarks tagged nasty Nasty, Nasty Scrabble Gram saved by 5 others HayLinandAmyRoseFan bookmarked on 02/05/08 | [...]
7:42 pm on February 20th, 2008 29
Well, the inventor of Scrabble was a guy named Alfred Butts…..so perhaps the actual subtext referred to the lonelt life of Mr. Butts?
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1:56 pm on February 24th, 2008 30
[...] Ridiculous Spam 24 02 2008 So a while ago, I had a post from my other blog Boing-Boing-ed. Getting on Boing-Boing drives your traffic nutso…apparently even more so if your particular website mentions….well…something dirty. [...]
12:11 am on May 10th, 2008 31
… before I could come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech
or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. What
did it matter what anyone knew or ignored? What did it matter who was
manager? One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials of
this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my
power of meddling.
– Joseph Conrad
—————————————————————————————————-
http://xanga.com/joshuareevesld
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