I am the king of Boggle/ There is none higher/ I gets eleven points from the word 'quagmire.'" A few years ago, I thought this line from a bad Beastie Boys song was incredibly funny, if a bit random. The line made you remember that, at heart, the Beastie Boys are just a bunch of Jewish boys from New York. But little did I know that I would come to the pinnacle of boredom and also become the king of Boggle, much like Mike D and Mario C. How I came to be the king involves a much more complicated and sinister story (well, actually there's nothing sinister about it -- I was bored). Here's the story, quickly:
Last term I decided to spend eleven days in London with some relatives of my girlfriend. I thought that this trip would be a good way to get to know the family, "meet the parents," etc. My girlfriend (we'll call her Jackie L. Actually, that's too obvious. J. Lee is better) would be there with her two sisters, mother, uncle, aunt and their two children. Maybe a clan that size doesn't sound like a lot of people to you, the reader, but I am an only child and most of my relatives live in places like Switzerland and as far away as they can get from me. So all these relatives pressed upon me, asking me "would you like some more food?" or "are you having a good time?" Well, I would have had a better time if they didn't ask that, but I was polite and they liked me, I think.
But then I discovered the Boggle demo game on one of the computers in the house. At first I was miserable at the game (the computer calculated how many words you could possibly get and then compared your score with the best possible score. I think I had 10 out of 192 at first). From then on, seven female relatives didn't bother me at all, because I could always retreat to the comfortable world of computer Boggle, where you need to know three to four letter words, not seven joint opinions. My girlfriend proceeded to get sick, so I stayed home for a few days and played about 50 hours of Boggle in a two day span, give or take two hours.
With my vocabulary uselessly expanded, I came back home to lazy Boston, which was in the middle of being cold, as it is most days now. Though I have yet to use obscure Hindu-derived words, I take a special pride in knowing the unit of currency in Bangladesh or various parts of the fork. Maybe I just enjoy useless knowledge. In Boston, I rediscovered the game of Monopoly, with the added bonus being that I realized that all children learn only rules to benefit themselves in Monopoly. The rules of children's Monopoly include: stealing from the bank (not allowed!), getting one of every bill for rolling snake eyes (not allowed!), and generally trying to swindle your friend until you win the game (a rule which I still allow, in my game).
If I had more time for winter break, I probably would have moved on to play some Scrabble and several other games, but how many games I played is not really why I liked revisiting these old games. The point of playing these games as a child was to make me a little more intelligent and prepare me to go to some school such as Brown (just kidding, no one would ever want to go there) or Dartmouth. Yet I always wonder why people over the age of 12 never play Boggle or Monopoly. Is there something shameful, ignominious or reprehensible about playing such a game? Or are these games soon to become obsolete in our PC-game-driven world which emphasizes visuals and action over legos and words? Or am I just showing off my newfound vocabulary?
I wish that more people could play these games. Boggle, really, helps a person capture the original meaning of words, to make a person really question how words are constructed, just like a child first learning the alphabet. You think of suffixes and prefixes and you're hooked -- on phonics, that is. If you have the word retire in the game, you also have ire and tire and rite. Monopoly, on the other hand, is the ultimate game of capitalism, a game for the contemporary world. The goal is consolidation, homogenization; but at the same time the owner of the monopolies creates more things, more houses and more hotels. The world becomes more varied, but at the same time more homogenous. These games are very adult constructions. Or you can just play them for fun.
