H...Y 🎂 Scrabble

 "It's worse than pitiful for a grown man to cheat at Scrabble."

 "I don't have to cheat." J.D. MacNamara narrowed his eyes and focused them on his daughter."Zuckly is an adjective, meaning graceful. As in the ballerina executed a zuckly pirouette."

 "That's a load of you-know-what," Jackie said, and scowled at him. "I let you get away withquoho, Daddy, but this is too much."

 "Just because you're a writer now doesn't mean you know every word in the dictionary. Go ahead, look it up, but you lose fifty points if you find it."

 Jackie's fingers hovered over the dictionary. She knew her father could lie beautifully, but she also knew he had an uncanny way of coming out on top. With a sigh of disgust, she dropped her hand. "I'll concede. I know how to be a zuckly player."

 "That's my girl." Pleased with himself, he began to add points to his score.

Loving Jack 

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By thebarrowboy (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Scrabble celebrates 70 years of word power

Scrabble is one of the world’s most popular and enduring board games and 2018 marks its 70th birthday.

4BC

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 Jackie pushed her letters around. "You know, Daddy, I've just began to think about it, but you and Mother, you're so different."

 "Hmmm?" He glanced up, distracted from the creative demands of inventing a new word.

 "I mean, Mother is so elegant, so well groomed."

 "What am I, a slob?"

 "Not exactly." When he frowned, she spread out her letters on the board. "There, hyfoxal."

 "What the hell is this?" J.D. waved a blunt finger at the word. "No such thing."

 "It's from the Latin for sly or cleverly adept. As in 'My father is well-known for his hyfoxal business dealings."

 In answer, J.D. used a brief four-letter word that would have had his wife clucking her tongue. "Look it up," Jackie invited. "If you want to lose fifty points. Daddy," 

Loving Jack

Real-Life Haunted Houses You Need to See

 "He's in Rolling Hills today. Well, not exactly in, but outside. 

Do you remember hearing about that old mansion no one ever 

seems able to live in for long? The one a few miles off the beach?"

"It's supposed to be haunted," A.J. muttered.

Mind Over Matter

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By Petar Milošević - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36600604

Get in the spirit of Halloween with a dose of paranormal activity.

These haunted houses are the real deal.

Family Handyman

The fight over Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie

“I thought we could get another dog, a puppy, as company for Bert. You could name him, since I named Bert.”

“Two dogs, no waiting.” He considered. “It’d have to be Ernie.”

“Why?”

He nipped one of the hot peppers off the tray. “Bert and Ernie. Muppets? Sesame Street?”

“Oh. That’s a children’s program. Bert and Ernie are friends?”

“And possibly more, but since it’s a kids’ program, we’ll stick with friends.”

The Witness

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By Sesameworkshop.org - http://www.sesamestreet.org, Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43713832

Are Bert and Ernie gay? It depends whom you ask.

Sesame Street has always had one consistent official answer (no, they’re not), but that hasn’t stopped the two famous felt roommates from becoming gay icons and occupying a unique role in the queer rights movement. Controversy over their perceived homosexuality has raged intermittently for decades, spearheaded by both allies and adversaries — and a new flare-up shows that it’s not going away anytime soon.

VOX

winter's coming

The amusement parks opened for business on weekends in the spring and fall. In the three summer months they worked seven days a week. The summer kept the town alive; it drew tourists, and tourists meant business. For one-fourth of the year, the town swelled from a population of thirteen or fourteen thousand to three hundred thousand. The bulk of those three hundred thousand people had come to the small coastal town to have fun.



Less of a Stranger 

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By Eric Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13147919

photos of amusement parks in the winter

September is quickly approaching, which can only mean one thing - summer is over. And with summer ending, it's the perfect time to get in all those last-minute warm weather activities you'll miss, like heading to your favorite amusement park.

If you really need a push, look no further than these sad photos of amusement parks during their off-season. They'll have you grabbing your friends and your car keys in no time - no one wants to admit that winter is right around the corner.

MSN

“Can you show me another trick?”

 Luke tore the paper in two and had the pleasure of seeing Nate’s eyes widen.

 “It disappeared! The pen’s been disappeared.”

 “Absolutely.” Unable to resist the flourish, Luke held up his hands, turning them,

 back to front and back again. His son’s bug-eyed belief made him feel like a king. 

Honest Illusions

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You might think that having the multitalented Neil Patrick Harris as a dad means constant entertainment. He acts! He sings! He does magic!

But Harris revealed Monday in a Build Series NYC interview that he only puts on his magician’s hat — so to speak — for Harper and Gideon, the 7-year-old twins he shares with husband David Burtka, “here and there.” It’s certainly not a constant magic show or anything.

YAHOO!

This Magic Moment

The Lady Vanishes. It was an old illusion, given a modern twist, and never failed to leave the audience gasping. 

The glittery crowd at Radio City was as eager to be duped as a group of slack-jawed rubes at a

dog and pony show.

Even as Roxanne stepped onto the glass pedestal she could feel their anticipation—the silvery edge of it that was a merging of hope and doubt glued together with wonder. Those inching forward in their seats ranged from president to peon.

Magic made equals of them all.

Honest Illusions

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By Glueballs - Own work, Public Domain, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8283189

Magic allows you to experience the impossible. It creates a conflict between the things you think can happen and the things that you experience. While some magicians would like you to believe that they possess real magical powers, the true secret behind magic lies in clever psychological techniques that exploit limitations in the way our brains work. Many of these limitations are very counter-intuitive which is why we can experience the magical wonder of the impossible.

THE CONVERSATION

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He gave a small laugh and shuffled the cards gently. 

“Mumbo jumbo, Miss Swan. A device to keep someone's attention focused 

and to add mystery to quick thinking and observation. 

Most people prefer to be fooled. Explanations leave them 

disappointed. Even most realists.”

.......


He managed to keep his face seriously composed as he stripped off his shirt. “The mind wants to believe the impossible,” he continued as he went into the bath to wash. “Yet it doesn‟t. Therein lies the fascination. If the impossible is not possible, then how was it done before your eyes and under your nose?”

This Magic Moment

how to do a karaoke?

“Everybody’s got a little clucker pecking around, depending on the circumstances.”
“What are your circumstances?”
“That’s a change of subject, but I’ll give it to you. Semiannual dentist visits, wolf spiders and karaoke.”
“Karaoke. That’s funny.”
“Not when I do it.”

The Witness

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It's that time of the night again - your friends are in the singing mood and all they want to do is karaoke. Do you flee because you can't stand the thought of humiliating yourself with your bad voice?

Well, stop right there, because we're going to teach you how to do karaoke (even if you think you can't).

NY DAILY NEWS

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