So, yes, it’s my mom’s birthday today so I hereby dedicate this post to her. I’m writing from rainy Amsterdam where Melinda and I are tonight before heading to Nantes tomorrow.

You might not know, but my mom is an expert at those word jumble games you see in the daily newspaper. Letters of words are mixed up and you have to put them back in order to discover the word. Now based on the 8 hours or so I’ve spent so far in Amsterdam, I think the whole country is involved in one big word jumble game. Case in point, this combination of letters, along with the illustration, that Melinda and I found on a street sign while out walking:

Just what the heck is this word? And if you get it, I think you have to keep trying to solve more, like on a game show. There are words like this everywhere. In stores, on street signs, in menus. Like I said, I think it’s one big country-wide word jumble game. It’s probably based on some research that proved doing puzzles like this keeps your mind sharp or something.

Potentially interesting side note — Melinda says this is the way words in English have always looked to her. Jumbled letters, no spaces…