Explained at The Guardian:
The Scrabblegram is a form of constrained writing in which you must write a piece of text that uses all 100 tiles in an English Scrabble set, and no other letters. The blank tiles must be used, and as per the rules can be any letter.This example by David Cohen [embedded above] is considered one of the best examples in the genre: it is a remarkable piece of text because not only does it make sense and paint an amusing picture, but it also flows beautifully, rhymes and has the correct number of syllables for a limerick.
You can create Scrabblegrams at this link (although I haven't been able to figure our how to utilize blanks) (apparently just keep typing as long as the number of red letters doesn't exceed two).
Extra points for doing one which forms words vertically as well? Perhaps the same or a different story? (I don't know if it is possible)
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a game we played on teevee, on a variety show called the Radio *Free Earth Teevee Show, in the middle-late 1980s, when there was time left in a show and no more acts were in line, which happened sometimes because it was a very small town and the show was two hours long. The game was played by children and grownups together, with a Scrabble setup, with the camera pointed down at the board, and it was called Noeenslobatonis, because of the first time we played Scrabble by the rules where you could play any word, but you had to immediately tell what it means. It went: Slob, a slob. Slobaton, a robot slob. Slobatonis, hair grease for the robot slob. Eenslobatonis, a popular song among robots, sung to the tune of Rock Me Amadeus (Ooh! EEN-slobatonis. Ooh!). And finally Noeenslobatonis, the planet where the greaser robots live, to complete the line. "What do you call this game?" nobody had to say.
ReplyDeleteI saw this article in the Guardian yesterday, and immediately knew it would be linked here.
ReplyDelete