Sunday, January 11, 2009

Wordle Challenges #2 & #3 -- The Answers



Time expired Saturday at midnight without there being any responses to Wordle Challenges 2 and 3. Too hard? Too vague? Out-and-out boring? Not clear? Hmmm? I was planning to just move on, leaving the debris of wordles to dog my heels, but Fred and La Belle et Bonne Bianca Castafiore are clamoring for more. Fred wants to wordle the first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities; The Castafiore demands Tintin au pays des Soviets.





Oy!




The Felines say it is a matter of offering sufficient reward and instantaneous fame. Also, they purr, more better kibble.


Wordle Challenge #2? From God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Pearls Before Swine by Kurt Vonnegut:


Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.'



Wordle Challenge #3? From Zazie dans le métro by Raymond Queneau:

Il faut bien vivre, n'est-ce-pas? Et de quoi vit-on? Je vous le demande. De l'air du temps bien sûr - du moins en partie, dirai-je, et l'on en meurt aussi - mais plus capitalement de cette substantifique moelle qu'est le fric. Ce produit mellifluent, sapide et polygène s'évapore avec la plus grande facilité cependant qu'il ne s'acquiert qu'à la sueur de son front, du moins chez les exploités de ce monde, dont je suis.

The Fredster's suggestion won't leave me alone, but those words are best presented straight up, neat -- unwordled. They surely do resonate.

A Tale of Two Cities
ChapterI: The Period

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

1 comment:

  1. Well, I thought they were a lot of fun, and they've led to a couple friends becoming addicted to making their own Wordles, so I thank you.

    In the interest of comparative lit, I would like to note that the "Tale of Two Cities" provides the base notes to my favorite Star Trek movie, "The Wrath of Khan." Middle notes of that estimable movie come from "Moby Dick," and top notes, of course, from Velveeta Cheese Product.

    ReplyDelete

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