Friday, January 07, 2011

Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 137


We're back! I hope everyone had good holidays and enjoyed the break. This is week 137 of Wordzzles. I feel like I have lost my wordzzle mojo. I struggled - even after that nice long break - to squeeze anything out of my brain. Not very happy with what I came up with today, but I did at least manage to come up with something. Many thanks to Argent, who sent me some words back in November. I didn't have to add thinking up words to my stressful feeling of inadequacy.


Words for this week's challenge were:  celebrate, doctor, shipping, choice, stake, time flies when you're having fun, secrets, disaster, back down, clouds   And for the mini:  research, insane, clarity, toy mouse, lottery



My mega:

It was strange, Margaret mused,  how they say that time flies when you're having fun. It also flies when you are not. When she had won the lottery, she had felt like she was floating on clouds, had celebrated with generous gifts to members of her family and to friends. Alas, she had been quickly brought back down to earth when her good fortune turned to disaster and her siblings hired a crooked doctor to declare her insane.  After shipping her off to a high-security home for the feeble-minded, they expected to take over her new fortune. They had underestimated her, though. For all her genuine kindness, Margaret was possessed of a very sharp and perceptive mind and had great clarity about the character of her brothers and sisters. With so much money at stake, she had hired a detective to research them and thus knew many, if not all, of their carefully held secrets. The fake doctor they had hired had actually been working for her. She had protected her assets in advance. The "institution" the "doctor"had shipped her to was actually a 5 star hotel for which her siblings would receive the bill - along with a small gift box containing a toy mouse snapped into a mouse trap and a note which said... "had you not tried to steal it from me, I would have shared with you. Now you get nothing but this bill, this mouse and a year's supply of cheese. - Love, Mags."  Because she had a big heart, she did put money in trust for her nieces and nephews, but with caveats in place, should they in any way follow in their parents' mis-guided footsteps.


My mini:

Amanda Jones was so happy to learn that she had won $10,000 with her scratch off crossword lottery ticket. She was convinced there was Divine intervention, since the 8 words that had won her the much needed money were: 

  • research (what she wanted the money to pay finance),
  • clarity (what her research was about),  
  • insane (her mother's mental illness was inspiration for her research),
  • angel (the name of her cat) 
  • toy mouse (purchase of which was her reason for shopping),
  • divine
  • luck
  • success

If that wasn't a message from the universe, what was?


My 10-word:

Andrew Johnson had reason to celebrate. After almost 40 (time flies when you're having fun) years in the shipping industry, he had decided to retire and try to enjoy life. Shortly after this retirement, the big oil spill disaster had happened and he had made the choice to volunteer to help with clean up. The future of his neighbors, his community had been at stake and he hadn't seen how he could just sit by and watch. When he started feeling ill a few months later, his wife - from whom he could keep no secrets - fearing he had contracted some dread disease breathing in clouds of oil fumes for weeks at a time. He didn't want to go but she had refused to back down from her insistence that he get medical treatment and he had finally reluctantly agreed (he hated doctors) to have a check-up. He had to admit that the sky looked a little bluer after his visit. This doctor (a woman, of all things) had given him a clean bill of health, prescribed some vitamins and sent him relieved and happy home to his wife and what she predicted would be a long and happy retirement. Life was good.


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Thank you to Argent for next week's words. She sent them back in November.


For the 10 wordnewspaper, empty plate, tiger, box, chewing gum, heating, traffic, books, canary, shoe
 
And for the mini: article, blind, watery, leap, crescent

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.


3 comments:

gabrielle said...

A crossword lottery sounds like fun. And I’m happy that Andrew’s health wasn’t impacted by the oil spill.

My favorite was the mega. Oh to have that kind of foresight in family matters!

I believe you when you say your wordzzle muscles are stiff, but to this reader, it seems you haven’t lost your touch at all. Your stories flow effortlessly and are a joy to read. Happy New Year!

Argent said...

I hyave to echo what Gabrielle has said. Why would you be unhappy with these stories? The mega was really especially ingenious I thought.

My efforts are up now.

The Bug said...

I wasn't too happy with my efforts this week either - but I've got to say that yours are much better than mine! Love the mega - I would like the opportunity to demonstrate the same forsight as Mags. Heh.