Wednesday, January 02, 2008
F-Word in Children's Puzzle
Recently I have been looking with interest at Kidspot, a newspaper comic that features a fun and educational thing for children to do. I have noticed problems in a couple of these puzzles by Dick Rogers, whose name for some reason does not appear in today's comic. Today, 2008 January 2, the Kidspot puzzle presented this array:
Find the words. The names of the picture clues are hidden in the square. Circle each word, going across, down and diagonally.
Accompanying the puzzle are pictures of a boot, a knife, a candle, a duck, a cat, a dog, a clock, a leaf, a bat, and a cane. These words can all be readily identified in the puzzle. So in that sense it is a good puzzle, a children's version of these "word puzzles" that we occasionally see in newspapers and magazines.
There are other words in the puzzle. Usually in these puzzles, one can go backwards and up as well as forwards and down. All of the pictures are represented by words that go forwards, down and diagonally forwards and down. But what if you go backwards and up? You will find words like FINK and GOD. OK, these are backwards for part of KNIFE and DOG, but there are others, such as TAB and the singing group ABBA, making me wonder if they paid for a plug. There is also the non-word verb BLAVO, and its past tense BLAVOED. These don't seem to affect the puzzle much, as the child is more likely to go forward and down.
But what's this I see in the lower right corner? Doesn't that look like the F-word sitting there in a t-pattern? Sure enough, there's an F, a U, a C, and a K. Almost assuredly a child, especially an older child, is going to notice that combination. Do the United Features Syndicate and Dick Rogers (if he authored the puzzle) really intend for this pattern of letters to be in a puzzle for children? One thing's for sure. If you are going to include a duck in a puzzle of this sort, make sure the letter F is nowhere near the duck.
| A | C | A | N | D | L | E |
| B | L | A | V | O | E | D |
| B | O | O | T | G | A | U |
| A | C | A | N | E | F | C |
| T | K | N | I | F | E | K |
Accompanying the puzzle are pictures of a boot, a knife, a candle, a duck, a cat, a dog, a clock, a leaf, a bat, and a cane. These words can all be readily identified in the puzzle. So in that sense it is a good puzzle, a children's version of these "word puzzles" that we occasionally see in newspapers and magazines.
There are other words in the puzzle. Usually in these puzzles, one can go backwards and up as well as forwards and down. All of the pictures are represented by words that go forwards, down and diagonally forwards and down. But what if you go backwards and up? You will find words like FINK and GOD. OK, these are backwards for part of KNIFE and DOG, but there are others, such as TAB and the singing group ABBA, making me wonder if they paid for a plug. There is also the non-word verb BLAVO, and its past tense BLAVOED. These don't seem to affect the puzzle much, as the child is more likely to go forward and down.
But what's this I see in the lower right corner? Doesn't that look like the F-word sitting there in a t-pattern? Sure enough, there's an F, a U, a C, and a K. Almost assuredly a child, especially an older child, is going to notice that combination. Do the United Features Syndicate and Dick Rogers (if he authored the puzzle) really intend for this pattern of letters to be in a puzzle for children? One thing's for sure. If you are going to include a duck in a puzzle of this sort, make sure the letter F is nowhere near the duck.
