connect-the-dots

[Kathleen E. Miller]

At 01:34 PM 5/24/02 -0400, you wrote:
>On Tue, 21 May 2002, Johnson, Ellen wrote:
>
> > there's another dot game where dots are drawn in a grid and you take
> >turns drawing one line (i,.e. connecting 2 dots horizontally or
> >vertically) at a time.  whoever makes a box puts their initials in it.
> >one with the most boxes wins.  sort of hard to explain without giving a
> >demonstration.  Ellen
>
>I played this growing up, but I have no idea what we called it, if
>anything.
>
>-- Steve Kl.


This game came up in the research - called Dots-and-Boxes or
Pigs-and-Sties. It was a new one on me. The generation (or two) gap between
Safire and me proved that we have a totally different view of what
connect-the-dots is.

 From my childhood (early 70s), I remember a simple picture - with numbered
dots - not very stimulating.

 From his (early- 30s) he remembers something with clues and
cross-lettering - which would be neither dots-and-boxes nor connect-the-dots.

It should be interesting to see what kind of response we get from the game
description in the column. (06.02.02)

Katy


Kathleen E. Miller
Research Assistant to William Safire
The New York Times