Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 30 of 131
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 44 Number 4
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 44 Number 4
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In his first column as Kickshaws editor in Feb. 1989, Dave Morice showed how one can construct chains of state names using thier postal codes: Maine contains IN, the postal code for Indiana; Indiana contains IA, the postal code for Iowa; Iowa contains WA, the postal code for Washington, and so on. More generally, one can construct a directed network of state names containing a core of states, any one of which can reach any other (AK AL LA IA WA IN ND AND HI), starter states which can be chained to the core but which cannot themselves be reached …
A Puzzle, Jeremiah P. Farrell
Punk Whiz 16, A. Anil
Punk Whiz 16, A. Anil
Word Ways
Oh, no, yet more Pun Quiz misdefinitions! In paranethesis are the letters in the answer, (3|6) is a charade, a nine letter word that spilits into a three plus six letter pun. My answers are out back.
Too Hot To Hoot, Jeff Grant
Too Hot To Hoot, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
The classic palindrome in the title appears in a 'Palindromic Conversation Between Two Owls' in Howard Bergerson's Palindromes and Anagrams (Dover Publications, 1973).
Martin Gardner And Gilbert Chesterton, Jeremish Farrell
Truthful Arithmetical Charades, Mike Keith
Truthful Arithmetical Charades, Mike Keith
Word Ways
In (WW, May 2011, p.99) Anil introduces a construct which I will call a Truthful Arithmetical Charade. In the simplest kind, the name for a number (say, FIVE) is converted to its sequence of letter values (6, 9, 22, 5) and then an arthimetic expression (using just the elementary operations of add, subtract, multiply, and divide) is sought that uses these numbers in order to produce a value equal to the original number.
Kickshaws, David Morice
Not All One-Letter Words Are Palindromes, T.A. Hall
Not All One-Letter Words Are Palindromes, T.A. Hall
Word Ways
Virtually any discussion of palindromes - regardless of the source - reveals a complete lack of interest in small words. In particular, one will rarely encounter a list of one-letter palindromes, presumably because that type of word should be palindromic by any definition. While this is clearly the case for the most common, garden-variety examples (e.g. A, I, O etc.) the naive view will have us believe that one-letter words with an adjacent apostrophe -typically contracted words in English - should be palindromes as well.
Anagram Quiz 4
Word Ways
The clues are definitve anagrams or polyanagrams of the answers. Answers are out back.
Fractional Phrases, Susan Thorpe
Fractional Phrases, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The phrase HAND OVER FIST could be interepreted as an instruction to place the word HAND over the word Fist. When the letters of HAND and FIST are assigned their aphabetical values (a=1, b=2 etc.) HAND (8+1+14+4) = 27 and FIST (6+9+19+20) = 54. So HAND over Fist = 27/54 which can be reduced to 1/2. Hence, HAND OVER FIST ia a fractional phrase equal to one half.
On The Distinction Between "Phonetic" Palindromes And "Phonetically" Reversible Words, T.A. Hall
On The Distinction Between "Phonetic" Palindromes And "Phonetically" Reversible Words, T.A. Hall
Word Ways
1. Defining three types of words By definition, a palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence that reads the same in the reverse direction as in the forward one. Simple examples of four letter English palindromes include SEES and DEED, but a moment's reflection reveals there is a fundamental difference between these two words.
Vowels V Consonants, Susan Thorpe
Vowels V Consonants, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The Vowels and Consonants are playing football but not exactly as we know the game. The matches are either 2 a side, 3 a side, 4 a side or 5 a side games. Amazingly, each game always ends in a score draw, in some cases an extremely high-scoring draw!
The Antiquity Of The Dreidle, Solomon W. Golomb
The Antiquity Of The Dreidle, Solomon W. Golomb
Word Ways
Dear Rabbi Dov, As I mentioned to you a few days ago, the dreidle is actually an ancient toy, but I may be one the very few people who knows this, and I discovered it by accident.
Unsociable Diplomats And Misnamed Wombats: More Funny Bloopers And Barbed Ripostes, Don Hauptman
Unsociable Diplomats And Misnamed Wombats: More Funny Bloopers And Barbed Ripostes, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
In a Wall Street Journal forum on terrorism, published on September 9, 2011, a former top government official wrote: " We went to war with Germany in 1941 not because it had attacked Pearl Harbor but because it was dangerous." Does he really think Germany rather than Japan attacked Pear Harbor? Or is it just a sloppily crafted sentence?
Mnemonics In Second Language Acquisition, Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Mnemonics In Second Language Acquisition, Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Word Ways
When my son Giulio Xingtian Yehuda Zuckermann, a.k.a. Giulio XYZ, was 2 years old he already knew the Israeli word for 'fish' : DAG. Due to the general tendency towards final devoicing (see, for example, German kind, pronounced kint, or a German immigrant to Israel pronouncing Negev as Negef), Giulio often pronounced DAG as DAK.
Celestial Magic- Another Magic Spell, Jeremiah Farrell
Celestial Magic- Another Magic Spell, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
Our celestial magic is a variation of the effect in "A Magic Tour" (February 2011) which in turn was an adaptation from Jim Steinmeyer's Subsequent Impuzzibilities.
Neologisms Beginning With The Letters Q Through S, J. James Mancuso
Neologisms Beginning With The Letters Q Through S, J. James Mancuso
Word Ways
Neologisms beginning with the Letters Q through S.
Quarterly Riddle Roundup, Jim Puder
Quarterly Riddle Roundup, Jim Puder
Word Ways
Each ot the last four issues of Word Ways has offered one or more articles discussing Eliza Hurst's 1782 Ladies' Diary riddle or enigma, and this article continues the fad. Herewith the latest on this topic so far as I am aware of it at press time, plus some items of related interest.
Riddles: Sherlockian, Joycian, Freudian "Eye", Tomoyuki Tanaka
Riddles: Sherlockian, Joycian, Freudian "Eye", Tomoyuki Tanaka
Word Ways
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" I love hard riddles. Even if a riddle was designed to have no solution, we can often think of good answers anyway (e.g. Poe wrote on both).
Phonetic Aeiou, Susan Thorpe
Phonetic Aeiou, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
According to the phonetics list in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed., the phonetic symbols which represent the 5 major vowels as they are pronounced in the alphabet are:
Simon's 2000 Christmas Card, Simon Nightingale
Simon's 2000 Christmas Card, Simon Nightingale
Word Ways
Dear Jerry, This is my 2000 Christmas card. It is hard! The obvious clue is: If you want HELP!, then "... --- ..." How to assign Morse code to the objects is not easy.
Invertible Word Squares And Rectangles, Mike Keith
Invertible Word Squares And Rectangles, Mike Keith
Word Ways
Eric Harshbarger recently posed an interesting question: what are the largest word squares or rectangles that can be found which transform into another, valid word square or rectangle when turned upside down?
Vintage Plastic Sliding-Letter Puzzles, Mike Keith
Vintage Plastic Sliding-Letter Puzzles, Mike Keith
Word Ways
One artifact from my childhood in the 1960's that I still remember vividly is the series of plastic sliding block puzzles manuafactured by The Roalex Company of Forest Hills, NY (no relation to the maker of fine timepieces).
Stinky Pinkies: Variations, A. Ross Eckler
Stinky Pinkies: Variations, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The standard stinky pinky is a two-word rhyming phrase such as FLOWER POWER or HAIRY LARRY. Common variations are achieved by inserting words such as THE or 'N' (as in SLICE IT 'n' ICE IT, to skin and freeze an animal, or CATCH the SCRATCH, to contract a case of poison ivy). Buzzwords (Crown Publishers, 1993) has a variety of unusual variations; a type-collection is given below.
Close Call, Louis Phillips