Wholly
Toledo
Sophisticated
puzzle for kids of
various ages.
Copyright ©2003
by Paul Niquette.
All rights reserved.
Revised in 2015.
 t was 1970 and a long vacation
drive. "Here
are your clues," said I over my shoulder to the
restless children in the
back seat. "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 -- the main feature -- quiet time.
The name of the
game, which was
derived from that first challenge, has endured for
more than four decades in our
family -- passed along by my children to my
grandchildren (and soon to
my great-grandchildren).
"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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