We are thrilled that Real Simple magazine selected One Up!® as a 'Snow-Day Staple', which has inundated us with new orders. To say thanks to all you word snobs/nerds/lovers for all your enthusiasm and support we're offering a real simple discount— just use coupon code 'realsmart' at checkout and get 25% off your entire order. Happy New Year!
One Up!® Cup February 2012
Calling all vocabularians! Just like last year, we'll post a One Up!® 'game situation' every month so all you doubledomes out there can show everyone how brilliant and quick you are.
Here's all you need to know now to play: take one or more letters from the center and add them to an existing word to make a new word.
Since there won't be a 'right' answer, we'll be looking for originality, wit and wow! The winner will receive a One Up!® and have his or her name put in the drawing for the Grand Prize at the end of the year.
Speaking of winners, here's December's:
Hi Timothy,
Starting with HAR(U) where the Uppity Tile is a K (as in the Christmas song: "Hark" the herald angels sing), I'll add B, U, E, and S from the common pool to produce the rather obscure word HAUBERKS, which are suits of armor.
Hope it's good enough to make me the first 3-time winner!
Merry Christmas to you and your entire family,
Linda Stephens
Congrats Linda, and all the winners in 2011. Thanks for a great year.
We are excited to announce the name that stands alone atop the One Up!® Cup 2011 heap and our first overall champion is Jeff Kastner, who from now on will be known as "Mr. OneUp!man." His enthusiasm, top-notch mentoring (and dazzling gamesmanship) helped make One Up!® and the One Up!® Cup a huge success.
Thanks so much Jeff — we're happy to have you heading up our word team. And thanks to everyone who played our game!
November's winner is... well, we're just going to be foolish and rush in (to judgement) where angels fear to tread:
Hi Timothy,
It's Devorah Pashev with submissions for your November One Up! contest.
My submission starts with "stain" that is added to a "door" and what you get is the plural for one of my favorite Indian dishes: "tandooris". All the more fitting since we just stained one of the doors in our house; so as Yoda might say, "It a 'tan door is'!"
My husband Rado is submitting a very clever one too, I must admit. He's starting with "bleat" adding something "odd" and ending up with "deadbolt". He hopes to "lock up" the top prize with that word!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Devorah and Rado Pashev
How about if we award it to Rado this time, in the name of connubial harmony?
We got this charming email a few weeks ago, and were put in mind of the William Styron-penned classic "Sophie's Choice":
Hi Timothy,
It's Shaina and Nicole Lesniewicz again.
My (Shaina's) submission for the October contest is DULCIMORE. I decided to be a purist and not exercise my option to make the uppity tile into any other letter but what it was originally intended to be, namely an "E". So, starting with DOCILE, I added some RUM, stirred it up, and served up DULCIMORE, which is a musical instrument.
My sister Nicole is submitting CHOROIDAL, using the uppity tile as an "H". So starting with the letters DOCILH, adding OAR from the center, produces CHOROIDAL, which relates to a part of the eye.
Thanks for these fun contests and for the One Up!® game you sent me after I won a previous contest. We always learn a lot of new words!
We're going to go with Nicole this time - in the name of sibling un-rivalry. Congrats to everyone, and keep sending in your excellent and inspiring entries!
August isn't technically over yet, but we've already picked our favorite entry - Mark Nandor, who sent us several excellent plays, and some food for thought:
"Greetings.
"I just found your site today, as a cup of One Up!® was listed as a prize for an A.Word.A.Day contest. Pretty cool!
"For my answer, I was thinking about being cute ("his translation of the CUNEIFORM inscription is currently UNCONFIRMED by the archaeological community"), or going for the largest point difference ("from SIMMER to MONETARISMS"), or the most obscure ("YIKES, exclaimed the fungus, I can't make this wood rotten because it has been KYANISED!"). Instead...
"I decided to go for profound. Not worth many points, and extremely easy to find. However, I remembered my Proust! His taste of madeleine cake dipped in tea inspired (or at least provided the impetus for) much of the rest of his classic, In Search of Lost Time. So that particular SIMMER inspired a brilliant set of MEMOIRS.
"By the way, an idea for One Up! Cup, if you haven't tried it before: volume! For instance, over the course of some of my sleepless nights I found over 130 possible moves in the August game. Just a thought... (Incidentally, probably my next favorite after SIMMER to MEMOIRS I found just last night: the old Yiddish mother watched her TZIMMES SIMMER (reusing the uppity as a Z, of course)."
Cheers.
Mark Nandor
Thanks Mark, and everyone else who entered. BTW, we've updated the website to make it easier to submit an entry, and to share One Up! on Facebook. Spread the word, spread the word.
July was a tough one, since we had several clever entries, but we finally decided to award the One Up!® Cup to Linda Stephens:
"Hi Tim,
"Here is my entry to your One Up!® contest July. Hopefully, lightning can strike twice for me and I can win again, as I did in April. If so, I'll be giving my One Up! prize as a birthday or Holiday gift to one of my word game loving friends.
"Starting with JETSAM, I turn it into SCRAMJET, as in the sentence:
'The JETSAM floating on the ocean was observed from above by the pilot of the SCRAMJET.'"
Great stuff - keep 'em coming!
Devorah Pashev trumped all in June, but we made a mistake - her entry was for May. So we'll just have co-winners for May. June's winner (this time for real), is from our old friend Jeff Scrabbleman, who sent in this:
"Inspired by my first car, a PONTIAC, I convert the word POINT into CAPTION (or its anagram PACTION)."
June's winner, which we just picked, is Devorah Pashev from Chandler, AZ.
"I'd like to enter your One Up! contest published in the May - June issue of The Last Word.
From the word TREAD I'll make BAREFOOTED. The uppity tile can be used as one of the O's.
It reminds me of a line in a poem I had read in high school: "Barefooted, I lightly tread..."
Hope it's a winner!" And it is.
And the winner for May is: Shaina Lesniewicz, who sent in this - "I use my TROWEL to plant the beautiful FLOWERETTE! (Uppity Tile is the letter 'T')." Fantastic, and thanks to all who entered.
Linda Stephens won the challenge for April with this gem: "For your April contest, I predesignate the Uppity tile as the letter "I" and form the word PREDESIGNATE from TEENAGER." Wow.
Jeff 'Scrabbleman' Kastner was the victor in March:
Hi Timothy,
I'm Jeff Kastner, an Expert-rated Scrabble player from Phoenix, AZ who also contributes two word game columns every month to The Last Word newsletter.
I like your game and want to submit my entry to your March contest. The word, appropriately enough, is AFTERWORDS which is stolen from the root word: STOWER. AFTERWORDS refers to concluding commentary, as in books. It is the opposite of FOREWORDS. These two words should not be confused with AFTERWARDS and FORWARDS which both mean something else.
As creative and fitting as this submission is, your rules state that for scoring purposes, the first letter of every word found is eliminated before adding up the points. In the case of AFTERWORDS, that would mean that the A or uppity tile, would be eliminated, thus losing a 4-point opportunity. Therefore the best scoring play instead of AFTERWORDS, would be its own anagram, namely FORWARDEST! It's an acceptable Scrabble word meaning: being the most advanced.
So, please accept these entries as a twin anagrammatical pair, one for its aesthetics and relevance, and its mate for highest scoring.
Cheers,
Jeff Kastner
Mr. Kastner brought up a good point, so we've modified the rules slightly to read: "...one letter from each word isn't counted..." instead of "the first letter..." See 'The Kastner Rule' in the sidebar for another rule change.
We've just sorted through the entries for February and have picked a winner: Vail Palmer, who sent in 'buffalos'. Congrats to everyone who participated, and keep 'em coming!
The winner for January is Sisir Anand, who enlightened us with this play: THISTLE + I = THELITIS. Since it's way over our heads, we'll let Sisir explain:
"In medical jargon it means (for those who have it, embarassingly) an inflammation of the nipple usually due to gangrene.
The more common version is also called mastitis and has severe economic implications in the dairy business. It is usually very difficult to detect (hence also called subclinical or asymptomatic) and hence affects the whole herd undetected, quickly. The usual cheap household test is to add detergents (that are anionic) or shampoo having the very common sodium lauryl sulfate.
As can be surmised, it is very painful for the cattle in question."
Bob Gillis was the winner for December's dry run with this incredible play: BOOTER + H = THEORBO. A theorbo, for all of us who had to look it up, is a 17th century musical instrument similar to a lute, but having an extra set of bass strings. Congrats Bob, and thanks to everyone who entered!
How to One Up!®
Unbelievably, not everyone knows how to play One Up!®, so we decided to have our interns make a 'How to' video that even they can understand:
House Rules Rule.
First and foremost, follow the instructions. But creativity and a level playing field are sometimes just as important. At our house, we have our own variations that make it fairer for all of us to play together - we let the kids (ages 10, 9, 8) make any words; my wife can only make 4 letter words (which she's really good at!); and I can only make 5 letter words or longer. Piece of cake.
We've heard from 2 different people saying they subtract the first 2 letters of each word when adding up the score (instead of one), which gives even more weight to superior thinking ability. An old friend of ours who is always flying back and forth between L.A. and New York for business tells us that he has 5-minute speed games before meetings, or on the set between takes, and it really gets everyone's synapses fired up. The too-cool-for-schoolers who used to be late or were bent gaga over their Blackberrys all the time, he tells us now actually show up early and eager to sharpen their wits!
A League of Their Own.
We received this email from Bob Gillis, author of Bob's Bible (a Scrabble word reference guide) and member of the National Scrabble Association's dictionary committee, and realized what we always suspected was true is true - we're complete amateurs:
Mr. Write,
This is essentially the after hours game of choice at Scrabble tournaments.
We take two (or more) sets of Scrabble Tiles and place them face down, mix
and everyone slides some near themselves.
Typical minimum is 7 letters though intermediate players may play 5.
Our rules for "steals" has evolved a bit -- to steal a word, the new word
must not contain the old word inside it (in order) even if you hypothetically remove letters. In other words, the word cannot be stolen if it is an extension or an insertion or combination
thereof. Occasionally this eliminates a few fairly nice plays, but it makes a straightforward
enforceable no-quibble rule.
We sometimes play with blanks as well, but they must be accompanied by two non
blank letters and only used for steals of a length at least 3 longer than the word being
stolen.
Our scoring is based on sum of squares... first we match like length words (since they
cancel out) and the remaining are scored as the square of the word length. However, the
winner is usually obvious and so most games are never scored.
I can remember seeing the 14 letter word
tatterdemalion (aka ragamuffin) played at the 2008 Boston Area (Scrabble) Tournament by Frank Tangredi of NY. His brief account to the national scrabble email list:
"No, I'm not tooting my horn about winning the early bird, though that
felt DAMN good. But on Saturday night, I made the best anagrams steal
of my life - even better than KINDLIEST + F*.
David Wiegand had RETALIATE....
I stole it with DMNT...
And the word was...
TATTERDEMALION."
It's pretty unbelievable how far certain players go in playing Anagrams.
The top players are so good that it's impossible for most good scrabble
players to even hold onto any words for the duration of a game.
Kudos to you for introducing it to a new group of players...
Bob Gillis
*Distelfink n. A traditional Pennsylvania Dutch folk art motif of a bird or birds symbolizing good luck and happiness.
In the beginning was the word (game)...
There's nothing new under the sun, just rehash. But that doesn't mean rehash can't be breathtakingly original, and new. We'd like to think ours is. But we're also students of history, and want to know where things come from, and how they got from there to here. For a comprehensive and in-depth look at word games down through the ages and around the world, check out Steffan O'Sullivan and Graham Toal's excellent Letter-by-Letter Word Games.
Yes, you can buy brains— right here.
One Up!® is the ultimate mind game— it's not only faster and harder than Scrabble®, it's also way more exciting than trying to memorize the dictionary. Seriously, do you think you have enough intellectual soup in the kitchen, so-to-speak, to whip out the biggest words and win?
A steal at $15.00
What's in a name?
one up (WUN-up) — (v) To get the better of; succeed in being a point, move, step, etc., ahead of (someone).
Eugene one-upped his opponent with impunity.
There are no guarantees...
... in life, but we're so sure you will love One Up!® that we're offering a money-back guarantee— if you aren't completely enthralled and hooked (or defeated and frustrated), just send it back to us and we'll refund your purchase price, with no questions asked, except what the heck?
Testimonials.
"I brought one as a gift to a dinner party instead of a bottle of wine. It was a BIG hit." - Dr. David O-S.
"I'm definitely not going back to Scrabble. Even my son loves playing." - Elyssa J.
"A great game and a good way to waste, er pass, time when I should be doing something more productive." Regards, Sue
"Wanted to let you know that we have enjoyed the game One Up!® and that we appreciated all the customer service your company provided to us." - Monica Z.
The Kastner House Rule.
'Mr. OneUp!man' Jeff Kastner wrote to us again recently, and offered a suggestion to kick things up a notch:
"We've been sort of playing with our own house rule that the Uppity tile can be reused during a game as any other letter of the stealer's choosing. It makes for a lot more challenging game, especially among the more advanced players in my circle. It also reduces the guesswork (and potential arguments) as to what the Uppity tile is, if indeed it could be more than one possible letter.
So we've decided to let the brainiacs use the Kastner House Rule at their own discretion.
Heads up.
Why don't you try some of the other clever wordplay games we have at Smarten Up! Show us what you've got going on under the hood, so-to-speak.
Stay tuned up (and in).
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