Has anybody else seen the magazine ad (in The Economist and Bon Appetit, and probably others, as well) for Ketel One vodka that says:
Dear Ketel One Drinker
Can you make one hundred words,
of four letters or more,
from the letters in Ketel One Vodka?
Cool ad, since I’m enough of a geek to actually try it, although anyone language-geeky enough to actually do the puzzle is language-geeky enough to be seriously skeeved out by the lack of appropriate punctuation in the ad.
Anyway, here’s what I came up with (I was DETERMINED to finish it, once I started):
kook
look
vote
lode
lone
loon
done
tone
took
keel
need
keen
node
lake
leek
dent
vent
navel
leaven
leave
delve
load
toad
talk
told
atone
knead
dean
dole
dote
deal
kale
tale
tole
note
knot
eked
leak
teak
neat
take
klan
knave
vane
oven
eaten
kneel
knelt
dealt
dove
vole
loan
even
event
lent
eleven
teen
dolt
love
loved
late
date
talon
taken
tonal
oval
noted
leaked
loaned
leant
lean
leaned
looked
voted
toned
atoned
vented
leavened
talked
teal
veal
veto
vetoed
lead
dale
veldt (was REALLY proud of myself when I came up with than one!)
denote
vale
devote
vented
venal
aeon
devotee
valent (really proud of this one, too – had to look it up to make sure that it really was a word)
evade
delta
delete
dental
aloe
alone
I must confess that Hubby actually gave me “delete”. Hubby is even more of a geek than I am: after watching me work on the puzzle for a couple of days, he decided to write a program (linking to a small dictionary database) than would create words. Version 1.0 came up with a total of 119 words, but then he linked it to a more comprehensive dictionary (Version 2.0) and was able to come up with 300+ words.
Some other good ones that his program came up with:
vend
vendee
valet
tool
taken
tend
onto
tank
loot
donate
advent
alto
ankle
anklet
anode
ante
dank
naked
land
needle
noel
noodle
need
nook
nova
novel
laden
knee
evoke
elevate
elate
lane
lank
late
olden
oleo
leaden
have
volt
After seeing “anode”, I remembered “anole” (cute little green lizards), too. They have them in East Texas (where my grandparents, as well as Hubby’s, live), but we just saw some at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, so they were fresh in my mind. I wish there were some “prize” for this puzzle; it seems like I should AT LEAST get a bottle of the stuff. It’s been a while since I had a nice cocktail.
wow! good for you both, i’d never have found more than 20 words or even attempted it.