The rules:[ul][li]Each poster must post a word that is completely unrelated to the preceding word.[]You can earn a point by finding a valid connection between two consecutive words.[]You lose a point if nobody buys your connection.[]The person who has posted a succesfully challenged word is penalized one point.[]If a word goes unchallenged for five turns, it is subject to a “statute of limitations.” The game can end in one of two ways-- either someone makes it to ten points and is declared the winner, or we all get bored to tears and the thread drops like a stone in a low-pressure zone.[/ul]Are you ready? Then we’ll begin:[/li]
Elderberry.
Staccato
I do not believe that the word sock is related to elderberry.
How about the word grass?
Swordfish.
hub
BUZZZZz!
Hub Swordfish is a popular dish.
1 point for Mudd. 
stadium
hindsight
Uh, whut now? I guess to simplify things, a challenged word is still used to link to the next one. (Since we can challenge five steps back.)
Next word:
avacado
(With hindsight, I should have previewed.) 
echinacea
ingenuous.
I googled “hub swordfish” and got five “Hub swordfish in mushroom cream sauce” recipes. Doesn’t sound too appetizing. Ok, 1 point for you I suppose.
Avocado and echinacea are often found together in skincare products, cosmetics etc. Do I get a point?
Next word: kinetic
Arthur Ganson’s ** ingenious kinetic ** sculptures address emotional and philosophical issues between the animate and inanimate, human and machine.
Presumably this describes a ‘form’ of sculpture.
Is that a point?
Starship would be the next word, if that’s the way it goes.
zephonith, that is certainly point-worthy.
Caught@Work, Rhubarb’s move was [url=“http://www.bartleby.com/61/83/I0138300.html”]ingenuous[/url, so I guess that’s a miss.
yeast
photograph
garbanzo
I made a stupid little page to keep track of the scores:
SCORES
penultimate
Microsoft