FĂ ilt [Welcome]! Ciamar a tha thu [How are you]?

• The Fiery Cross Sign-up runs through March 1, 2011 [CLOSED]
• The Fiery Cross Clan Assignments & partners posted March 15, 2011
• Sporrans mailed by May 15, 2011

Outlandish Swap V: The Fiery Cross

Scottish clans were originally a Highland way of life. The Highland clan was, above all things, a family; a family in which everybody believed they were all, from chief to blacksmith, descended from one founder or progenitor. They regarded themselves as very close kinsmen. This Swap is dedicated to such clan families and will be organized into four clans.


Friday, August 6, 2010

Beauchamp Challenge, Part Deux

Ladies! 

Welcome to Section 11 -- a book-free area.  With a nod to Section 11 of the book, this week’s challenge features two types of games:

-- What’s in a Name! – a Scrabble word game
-- Transitions! – a word morph game

As with all Highland Games challenges, the maximum possible points one can earn is 10.  But, ye can earn them by completing a combination of the following puzzles.

WHAT’S IN A NAME! is a “words-in-a-word” game that will present you with a name (like Jamie Fraser).  All you have to do is to find all the eligible words contained in that name.  Here are the rules, which follow standard Scrabble rules:

  • Found words should contain the number of letters listed for the origin name.
  • Proper nouns do not count, i.e., wolf counts; Wolfe does not
  • Found words must be a commonly used English word; “exotic” words are not eligible
  • Duplicates don't count.
  • For each name, earn 1 point for every four words of the identified length found, with a maximum of 3 points per name

Example:  Claire Beauchamp (all words 9 or more letters) results in the following words with 9 or more letters: amicable, bicameral, bleacher, chemical, cherubim, crucible, impeachable, impeccable, peculiar, preamble, reachable, republic.

Scrabble #1:  Roger Mackenzie (all words 8 or more letters) = max 3 points
Scrabble #2:  Kakonhoaerhas (all words 6 or more letters) = max 3 points
Scrabble #3:  Pere Alexandre Ferigault (all words 10 or more letters) = max 3 points

TRANSITIONS! is a word morph game where you change one letter in the starting word to form a new word.  Repeat the process until you spell the ending word.  Here are the rules:

  • Proper nouns do not count, i.e., wolf counts; Wolfe does not
  • Morphed words must be in common English usage; “exotic” words are not eligible
  • Earn 1 point for each completed transition, for a maximum of 5 points for this puzzle.

Example: morphing from "head" to "foot" takes five moves:
HEAD
1.    BEAD – H was changed to B
2.    BEAT – D was changed to T
3.    BOAT– E was changed to O
4.    BOOT – A was changed to O
5.    FOOT – B was changed to F

Morph #1:  FREE to SOLD in 6 moves or less
“I was born free,” Ulysses tells Brianna.  “The carpenter … claimed that as I was the child of a slave, I was by law a slave myself.  And so, he sold me.”

Morph #2: GRACE to FAITH in 7 moves or less
“[I] refuse to baptize infants unless both parents were Christian and in a state of grace” Alexandre confessed to Roger.  “This is necessary, you understand, if the child is to be raised in faith.”

Morph #3: BLACK to DEATH in 8 moves or less
“Black is for death; prisoners who are to be killed are always painted so,” the girl explained in telling Claire the story of Otter-Tooth.  “You knew this when you met the man on the mountain.”

Morph #4:  TELL to HEAR in 3 moves or less
“But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky.” declared Tewaktenyonh as she questioned how Claire came to possess Otter-Tooth’s opal.  “One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.”

Morph # 5:  FUSE to BOMB in 7 moves or less
“I said, it’s no time we have to be wasting! Did ye not hear your man sayin’ that the fuses are lit?” Bonnet said to Brianna. “It’ll go off like a bomb!”

 As with all Highland Game challenges:

  • 1 bonus point goes to each of the first 10 perfect (i.e., 10 point) submissions
  • 1 point each goes for the first submission (early bird) and the last before the deadline (sneaker)
  • 5 points to the winner
We hope you enjoy the challenges.

Your Beauchamp Sisters

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Murray Challenge, The Results

Lasses,

There were 25 of you that rose to this week’s challenge. You did your clans proud. The challenges were a little different this week and Clan Murray was not able to snatch 5 points from any of the clans. Here are the answers:

The Crossword:
1. Childbirth
2. Iroquois
3. Highlander
4. Wormwood
5. Bonnet
6. Frasers
7. Ian
8. Ring

(We dinna mark off for spelling if it dinna affect the other word. We ken what ye meant.)


ANAGRAMS:
ronnie sinclair - acorn in line, sir
roger wakefield - a deer wig for elk
germaine fraser - raise a fern germ
kenny lindsey - skinny lye den
dougal mackenzie - a deck. a mule. no zig.
geilie duncan - i nudge in lace

QUOTAGRAMS

Quote #1: “Sassenach, I can stand fine bein’ hurt, cold, and hungry. I wilna put up wi’ being stabbed in the back by my own wife. Can ye not offer a bit of sympathy and comfort instead?”
Quote #2: “Aye, well. I seem to recall hearin’ a verra similar opinion expressed by your mother - the night before our wedding. I havena asked her lately does she regret bein’ forced to wed me or not, but I flatter myself she’s maybe not been miserable altogether.”

Answers to the clues are available upon request, but I do want to include the special one I did for Eilis, which she found:
Some consider this a clan. Is it? (65 - 88 - 49 - 53 - 11 - 72 - 2 - 80 - 111) 9 letters
The answer: Beauchamp
Eilis is the only one who answered the second part of the quesion, Is it? And we all ken how she answered.

The Scoring:

Perfect scores:
Beauchamp: Muirne, Morven, Bree, Eilis
Fraser: Nannag and Fiona
MacKenzie: Annaed, Catriona Duncan, Mrs Fitz, Kinley, Seonag
(italicized ones were the first 10 to be received.

The Players:
Beauchamp: Muirne, Morven, Lady NF, Nemetona, Ealasaid, Bree, Eilis, Elspeth, Isobel, Imogene, Caroline and Sineag
Fraser: Nannag, Fiona, and Jocasta Walkley
MacKenzie: Sophia, Ceanna, Annaed, Kellan, Catriona Duncan, Mrs Fitz, Kinley, Catriona Mac, Imogen, Ide and Seonag

Points:
Beauchamp: 88 (12 for participation, 4 bonus for being among the first 10 correct, 1 for finding the challenge within the challenge)
Fraser: 26 (3 participation, 2 bonus for being among the first 10 correct, 1 Early Bird)
Mac: 78 (10 for participation, 4 bonus for being among the first 10 correct, 1 sneaker, 3 bonus over-achiever for answering every challenge correctly) + 5 for winner = 83

Special awards and accolades:

Early Bird: Nannag of Clan Fraser ~ her entry was received at 5:53 pm on July 31st.
Sneaker: Seonag of Clan MacKenzie ~ her entry was received at 11:59 pm on August 4th.
Over-Achiever: Ide, Seonag and Catriona Duncan of Clan Mac for completing all of the challenges
Morven of Clan Beauchamp for figuring out that one of the challenges was from a different section of the book.

There will be 11 names to choose from for the Challenge winner. Results to be posted later.

If you dinna see your name, please let us know so we can add you to the list.

Respectfully submitted,

Mordag Murray

Monday, August 2, 2010

fraser challenge II winner

so many names in the hat this week!!

my third boy, Ian, who has, I'm sorry to say, no super-special hat of his own......drawing the name from a dress-up knight's helmet (he really doesn't always look so...cracked out, lol. he kept blinking or something!
And the lucky winner is, Ceanna MacKenzie!!! Congrats, lass -- you're won an extra 5 points for your team & a bittie prize from the Fraser lasses! :)