If you’re part of the Baby Boomer demographic, you probably remember playing interactive games that didn’t flash before you on a screen. (If you’re younger, maybe that era seems almost unimaginable to you!) One game we played back then was Charades. The game didn’t require specific equipment or a deck of cards or a game board; people − with their vivid imaginations − were the only “supplies” needed for lively entertainment.
Most people in that day were familiar with the rules. (Read basic rules at the web-link provided above or here’s another website, wiki-how, that provides thirteen steps to follow … more involved than necessary, in my opinion.) The game requires presenters to pantomime and the presenter’s team tries to guess what each clue means.
Not surprisingly, I’ve now discovered another website that brings Charades into the twenty-first century. If you provide the players (i.e. a living room full of people divided into two teams), this website will generate words (songs, famous people names, common phrases, etc.), and you have the option to use the computer timer and have your scores recorded. (Sure beats the thirteens steps of the wiki-how mentioned above!)
In the game, there are several non-verbal cues a presenter is allowed to use. One of these cues is to point at one’s ear; gamers translate the ear-pointing hint to mean “sounds like.” This particular tool may be especially useful for unfamiliar words or concepts.
Thinking beyond the game of Charades, sounds like is an important concept on this blog. As I work (play) with words, I’m less likely to think in terms of grammatical elements (phonics, vowels and consonants, diphthongs and digraphs) though the grammatical has its distinct level of operation in any blog.
On this blog, I often mention my boundless affinity to words and the enjoyment I receive from bouncing one word off another. (Two posts come to mind … here and here … but if you want more, use the search term “poetry” to find others.) Engaging the sounds like tool … recognition by the ear that one sound resembles another … is one of the splendid ways in which I bounce words like high-velocity super-balls.
Today, I bounced words … I played with assonance. Actually, I’ve been working on this whimsical verse for a couple weeks, but finally completed it today. (Yes, the poem contains all the usual grammatical elements, but who cares, right? Just enjoy the poem!)
*And if you’re pondering the relevancy of this post’s title (Archibald Alexander Leach), the Charades category is famous people and their given names. Archibald Alexander Leach was the given name of Cary Grant, who played in the 1963 version of the film, Charade, opposite Audrey Hepburn.
Did you catch the pleasing assonance of his given name?!