Simon Says ... #1

Do you remember, as a child, playing "Mother, may I?" I think this was probably more of a girl's game. Boys were busy climbing trees - altho I did a bunch of that myself (In fact, I used to have about an 8" long scar on the side of my upper right leg that has faded a bunch over these many years. I got it from falling out of a tree and landing on a board that had this rusty old nail in it. Had to get a tetanus shot, stitches and all those other awful things.) - and playing cowboys and Indians.

There's a word game I dearly love that reminds me a bit of "Mother, may I?" It's called Simon Says. "Mother", of course, was very much a popularity contest. Whomever was currently in favor with 'mother' always won the game. As I said, a girl's thing.

Anyway, this is the first in what will be a series of Simon Says puzzles for you to solve. (Btw, folks, I'm only going to publish those that I find particularly amusing.) However, there will be no 'mother' to tell you whether you may or may not do something. With Simon Says, you must do the steps in the order presented and follow the directions exactly in order to arrive at the correct solution, which will be an amusing word or phrase that is apropos to where you started.

Only rarely do I get it right the first time, so have a little patience. Ready? Here we go with the first one.

1. Print the words MAD MITES ON THE MOON.
2. Change the A to a U.
3. Remove the center letter.
4. Swap the second vowel (A, E, I, O, or U) with the fourth consonant. (When directions like these are given, always assume that they mean starting from the left.)
5. Move the S to the very end of the row.
6. Remove one O.
7. Change the first letter to the letter that immediately precedes it in the alphabet.
8. Repeat step 3.
9. Swap the second consonant with the eighth consonant.
10. Insert a K immediately before the last letter.
11. Remove all M's.
12. Change the eleventh letter to the letter that immediately precedes it in the alphabet.
13. Remove the word THE.
14. Change the E to an A.
15. Remove the O.
16. Move the A two places to the left.

Did you have some fun with this game? What did you end up with? If you had LUNATICKS, you were correct. (If not, you need to start all over again. Be more careful this time.)

If you were really intrigued by this kind of puzzle and would like to see a bunch more, I'm sorry to tell you that you're in for a bit of a disappointment. You will notice, depending upon which store you are in, all sorts of different puzzle books and magazines. Generally speaking, however, only one or two Simon Says appear in any one issue - and there don't appear to be any large volumes of this particular kind of puzzle available from the publishers, as there are for many others.

Jacky, there's one coming up for you in the near future, but - unfortunately - I have misplaced it at the present time. It's here, somewhere. lol

PS. Tammy, your girls might have fun with these!