Wholly
Toledo
Sophisticated puzzle for kids of
various ages.
Copyright ©2003 by Paul Niquette.
All rights reserved.
" ere
are your clues," said I over my shoulder to the restless children in the
back seat. It was 1970 and a long vacation drive. "Give me the name
of a city, a storm, and a weapon."
No answer.
I scanned bewildered faces in the
rearview mirror. "There is only one rule of the game: All three words begin
and end with the same pair of letters."
"The same letters?" asked my daughter.
"The same pair of letters,"
my son answered.
Far as I know, that was
the first time Toledo
was played anywhere in the world. It had just invented itself inside
my cranium (the trip was tedious for me too).
"The city is in Ohio," said I, after
a couple of miles in silence.
"Cleveland?" asked my son.
"No, Toledo," exulted my daughter.
"And the storm is a tornado!"
"Yeah," agreed my son. "What
was that third clue?"
"A weapon," I answered.
"Torpedo!" cried voices in unison.
 hat
was hundreds of games ago, with players of all ages. The most fun,
by the way, is in thinking up challenges for others. Children have
a knack for doing that. It takes concentration and -- here's possibly
the main feature -- quiet time.
The name of the game, which was
derived from that first challenge, has endured for four decades in our
family -- passed along by my children to my grandchildren (and soon to
my first great-grandchild).
"Grampa I have a Toledo
for YOU: Something you do with a shovel, something you need a rope for,
and an animal."
The best Toledos have one-word clues...
-
pet, injury, bed (for second graders);
-
music, search, hippodrome (for teenagers);
-
processor, win, disease (for grownups);
-
visual, perpendicular, cerebral (for
graduate students).
Synonyms are the most common clues,
but a set of antonyms (an oledot) works, too...
Plurals and gerunds are frowned upon,
of course, but proper names and hyphenations are permissible...
-
ambassador, king, museum
-
noise-maker, ruffian, wading bird.
So here is the puzzle...
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