In my childhood, my friends and I used to play a wonderful game of words. It is an easy, no-expense game that can be played almost anywhere, anytime with no equipment requirements. The game requires at least two players who are conversant with English words and spellings.
The game had two popular versions -one was called 'word-building' and the other 'word-ending'. In the first version, a player begins to build a word with a letter -say A. The second player adds B to the the third O, the fourth can add either U or V, and the last player T or E. The built word turns out to be either ABOVE or ABOUT. In the 'word-ending' version of the game, the first player says a word - for example 'CAT'. The next player picks the last letter of the word that is 'T'. and says another word that begins with T. The game continues this way until some one's vocabulary is exhausted or makes a spelling mistake. I got trapped many times in this funny game. In the process, I learnt new words and so did others who played with me.
Talking about letters, wonder what are some of the most popular letters used today? The most crowded part in my personal phone directory is the section 'S'. It seems to me that more people prefer personal names beginning with S. My Webster's college dictionary devotes close to 200 pages for S out of a total of something like 1660 pages-that is about 12% of all the entire alphabet.
The least used letters are X and Z -the thinnest section in the same dictionary!
In the context of present usages, the letter W seems to be rapidly gaining popularity. Ever since the World Wide Web (www) entered our lives, people seem more concerned of many Ws - like Wealth, Work, Watching Weight, Women, Worry, Winning, Weaknesses .... the list goes on and on. In this law-ridden world, one comes across more questions like Who, What, Why, Where and When.
Newspapers and magazines too carry more of Ws - like Wages, Wal-mart, War, Water, Warming, Weather, Western,Women, Wounds, Wall Street, White House, Whiz-kids, Warnings, and all kinds of Wild things.
My home is located in Warbler Way!
Sure enough, W is getting in the limelight.
Well! Whatever - My mind Wanders! Am I Wrong? or just Worn-out?
