Wordplay

Yesterday my gym time coincided with recess for a class of 9- or 10-year-olds at the grade school. From my treadmill looking out on the playground, I saw girls in a group seemingly rehearsing something from some paper scripts and tying a long, fringed aqua scarf around a tree branch. The boys were right square in front of the gym window, so I got to watch a lively game of kickball. 

What I noticed most was that every boy—I mean, every boy—jumped up and down whenever he wasn’t running bases. Waiting for his turn behind the kicker, Backward-Baseball-Cap bounced on both feet. Boing, boing, boing. Manning third base, New-York-Athletics-T-Shirt sprang on both feet. Boing, boing, boing. When Green-Bay-Packers-Armband scored, he blazed across home plate, leaped up, ran a few steps up a tree trunk, and landed in more boing-boing-boinging. Meanwhile, boys cheering each runner from the sidelines were airborne most of the time as well. In addition to bouncing, the boys smiled huge smiles as they played. Their smiles reminded me of those “pudding face” Jell-O commercials on TV. These kids obviously took great pleasure in this game.

Though I’m not above boinging, I don’t often do it. (Too bad, I suppose.) :-) And though I’m not very good at wordplay, I take great pleasure in others’ skill at it. This week’s Sunday Trib crossword puzzle by Merle Baker contained some fun ones. For example, one clue was: Defeating actor Romano. The answer was: bestingray. (Besting Ray, or best stingray—get it? It took me a while to catch on). Another clue was: Where Gracie Allen was often filmed. Answer: besideburns. How about: Put on lots of rings? Answer: bedeckhand. I may not be boinging, but I have a mild case of pudding-face. I still haven’t gotten: Make light of composer Wagner. I have only _E__TT__R_C__R_. Oh wait, of course: belittlerichard. Oh, I feel a boing coming on.