Do you remember in middle school all those little games you used to play to figure out if that guy or girl you had a crush on liked you, too? Sometimes I still tie my straw wrapper in a knot to see if she's thinking about me. One of my favorites was the Name Game. There are probably hundreds of games using names, but this is the version I remember. Enter two names: Name 1 Name 2 You write your name down and the name of the person you're thinking of. Count the total number of A's in both names, and add one. Count the number of E's and add two. Count the number of I's and add 3. Add 4 to the total number of O's, and 5 to the total number of U's. So you now have five numbers. Cross out any two that add up to ten, and add up the rest. Any number below 10 is bad, above 20 is good, and anything in between is ok depending on whether you're closer to 10 or 20. Example: First, write down two names: Brian Clary Elizabeth Shue Next, count the total number of each vowel. Then add 1 to the number of A's, 2 to the number of E's, 3 to the I's, 4 to the O's, and 5 to the U's: A's E's I's O's U's 3 3 2 0 1 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 4 5 5 4 6 Now, cross out any two numbers that add up to 10. Since we have two 5's, they don't count. Also, one 4 and the 6 don't count: 0 0 0 4 0 So our total number is 4. which is pretty bad. Is it a good indicator? Well, I'm not dating Elizabeth Shue. In fact, she doesn't talk to me. URL: http://grove.ufl.edu/~bdclary/stuff/namegame.html Brian Clary