This year, we’re celebrating play at the library! Everyone knows how beneficial play is for kids, but did you know that it is equally important for adults? It can be a wonderful stress reliever, boosts creativity, alleviates boredom, and may even lower your blood pressure. To that end, every month in 2024, we’re highlighting a different form of play. Each month we’ll have a bingo-style fun card. If you complete all the activities for a blackout on your card, you’ll receive a special prize. The more of the 12 monthly fun cards you complete this year, the better chance you have to win the grand prize and be crowned our annual play champion!
For November, we’re celebrating wordplay! Word games can sharpen your brain, improve your memory, decrease your stress, and–not too surprisingly–improve your vocabulary.
Did you know that, though crossword puzzles first appeared in 19th century England, they didn’t take their current form until the 1910s in America? Their popularity really skyrocketed in the 1920s.
Did you know that enjoying solving crossword puzzles was one of the recruitment criteria for cryptographers (aka codebreakers) during WWII?
Did you know Pig Latin can be traced back to Shakespeare’s time, when it was known as Dog Latin and frequently employed by monks, who also knew real Latin?
Did you know in 2023, over 1 in 3 Americans played Wordle daily (including yours truly)?
Did you know the first word search was invented in 1968 by an Oklahoman puzzle maker named Norman E. Gibat?
Here’s our play card for November. We’ll have word searches, crossword puzzles, and cryptograms on hand this month, as well as a tutorial on Pig Latin. Ou-ya an-cay ank-thay e-thay ibrary-lay ater-lay. 😉
P.S. Speaking of wordplay, please be sure to attend these author talks at our sister libraries this month! Later this week, on November 8, the Eureka Springs Public Library will be hosting Kenneth C. Barnes as he talks about his new book, Mob Rule in the Ozarks–The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Strike 1921-1923.
And next week, the Green Forest Public Library will be hosting MSU professor Brooks Blevins as he presents on How to Talk Ozarks in Seven Simple Steps on November 14.
What’s your favorite form of wordplay? Are you fluent in Pig Latin? Tell us in the comments!
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