A chilly spell

As we type, it’s being said this will be the coldest night of the season hereabouts. Just the time for a nice hot bowl of chili to warm up with. In that spirit, we offer the second in our series of rough mockups of game variations we’d like to add to the app. It’s not the most appetizing bowl you’ve ever seen, we know. Too heavy on the beans, for one thing. And many letters ended up too close together.

The beans are also indistinct, making it hard to see connections, which tripped up our play again. We thought the A we reluctantly placed at the center was the last letter, only to realize there was one more to come. It was the wasted R we had to place at center-right, in a hidden zag we overlooked. Putting the R in the center would have given rider, leaner, etc.. R, S and D often have that piggyback effect.

That would have beaten Blu Yonder’s 150 points with its longest word of overlander. But close only counts in horseshoes and faux-cabulary. We did cook up a few of those fake words with phony definitions to feed your imagination and spice up the main dish of scoring words here. The obtrusive green lines in the screenshot below are simply a provisional visual aid. Just another issue to be addressed in an actual release. Normal game rules apply for now.

Curon: A small particle, also having wave properties, that sparks curiosity or wonder when encountering or emitted from a conscious entity; A muse.
Cralp: (Am. slang) Nonsense; Balderdash; Poppycock.
Laneac: (pejorative) A driver in extreme snowy conditions on a divided highway who manages to take up both lanes out of indecisiveness. Understandable, but can be a hindrance to proper traction and the smoothest flow of traffic.
Ridea: A “shower thought” idea coming to a solitary driver in traffic, with a fair chance of being lost to time as there is often no responsible way to record it. Sometimes occurs behind a laneac as a result of pent-up curons.

Cridnap: 1. To crumple, as a wad of paper, often to later open back up, as for the study of crinkle patterns, or to make another Spell the Beans variation. 2. A style of shirt worn by singles or TV detectives too busy to iron. 3. A brain fold: “Gloria, you have lovely cridnaps,” Peter whispered sensuously. 4. The sense of regret when finding you need something just moments after finally irretrievably throwing it away after retaining it just in case. Invariably experienced while surrounded by things you haven’t thrown out but never end up needing.
Rauny: (of weather) Damp, foggy, misty or overcast: Another rauny morning in the craggy glen, like so many others before and after.
Pandera: A raccoon-like animal with reddish fur and a long, prehensile tail.
Verlap: A coarse material made from patches of moss, having a cooling effect when worn in summer.

We noticed Blu Yonder made but got no points for paleo (small P; Proper nouns are never counted), which some dictionaries don’t have, but Merriam Webster does. We’ll be adding that as we continue to update the “Ok” list. And as we work on improving our chili bean spilling technique, we offer this recipe for industrial-scale do-it-yourselfers. Nice to know a whole pot didn’t go to waste.

 beans Chili Spell creativity design faux-cabulary mockups randomness spilling tips variations