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Review Of L.B. Van Der Meer, Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis, Miles Beckwith

Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies

No abstract provided.

Crossword

Word Ways

A crossword puzzle.

Front Cover, Publication Information

Word Ways

Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents

Simon Says, Simon Nightingale

Word Ways

This begins a yearly column from Simon Nightingale and his wife Bridget. Dr. Nightingale is a second generation metagrobologist (His father Bill had started their collection of over 1000 puzzles many years ago.). The answer to this rebus appears in Answers and Solutions.

Colloquy

Word Ways

Please note that a new electronic version of Word Ways will be available for next year's volume. Subscribers will be able to view on screen the last five years of Word Ways and eventually all forty-two years of articles.

Leaping Letters, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Each of these 2-word phrases contains a letter with flea-like tendencies whose sole aim in life is to leap across to the other word of the phrase! All well and good, but certain rules have to obtain and certain standards uphold in the process. The leap might be from the first word to the second word or from the second word to the first word. Whichever way they leap, the result must be another phrase.

Hewn-Ever, City-Head-You Occasion, A Anil

Word Ways

The cryptic title of this list reads "University Education". It features cognate homophonic puns of many of the academented Departments here at Puniversity. (Puny Verse at Tea?) The commentaries or course descriptions try to unearth some logic in the rubble, to 'defragment' it as it were, and to give clues if you have difficulty with any of them. As an additional clue it's alphabetical by the department's name before the degradation. I was going to make it a quiz but decided it's much too easy for you mob.

On Word-Length And Dictionary Size, John Henrick

Word Ways

It has long been known that the larger the dictionary, the longer the words that are contained in it. In an attempt to quantify this observation, I collected data from word lists based on several American and English dictionaries.

Kickshaws, D. Morice

Word Ways

In the February 2009 issue of Word Ways, I will have completed my 1,000^th page of Kickshaws. This count includes the columns that I've put together; it doesn't include columns by all the very talented guest editors or by the highly esteemed Dave Silverman, founder and long-time editor of Kickshaws. The February column will be 25-35 pages long.

A Poem, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

This is an excerpt from Gardner's 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son.

What's In? - A Name! - Part Iii, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

In this installment of "What's In? - A Name!", five-letter names have been removed from forty words and the remaining letters have been presented in consolidated form. For example, 'can' would readmit NADIA to reconstruct caNADIAn, a perfectly fine response were proper nouns eligible as answers. (They are not!) To make matters a bit more interesting this time, the genders, while equally represented, have been mixed together, much like the dorms in many modern-day colleges. Your goal is to imbed the invisible names into their compressions in order to identity the original word. Happy hunting!

The Apple-Sauce Chronicles, Louis Phillips

Word Ways

Word Ways resumes this anthology of light-hearted wordplay (see the May 1984, November 1984, and August 1986 issues) with suitable foods and drinks.

Accidental Tautonyms, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Whether you call them repeaters, double-ups, reduplications, or technically, tautonyms, words like FROUFROU, HINAHINA and GUITGUIT are fascinating. From ATLATL to ZOOZOO, and KAVAKAVA to TUCUTUCU, from DIVIDIVI to QUINAQUINA, and RIRORIRO to CHIQUICHIQUI, they all catch your eye.

Bionym, John Holgate

Word Ways

The famous are fond of inventing catchy tiles for their biographies often based on an associated nickname or signature tune. A classical 'bionym' is one in which the subject's identity is cleverly hidden in the title itself and can be guessed without knowing the author - like 'Citizen Jane' (Jane Fonda) or 'Acts of Faith' (Adam Faith).

Mnemonics For Number Sequences, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

One of the most frequently-occurring uses for a mnemonic is to remember a sequence of integers. As always, the question is one of efficiency versus memorability: how much must the original integer sequence be expanded? The obvious solution to the problem, that of letting the number of letters in a word stand for the integer (with ten letters for the digit zero) is extremely inefficient, representing a five-fold inflation.

A Poem, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

This is an excerpt from Gardner's 1969 book Never Make Fun Of A Turtle, My Son.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Even More Consecutive Palindromic Triads, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

Here is the latest collection of consecutive palindromic triads, an already familiar challenge to the readership of Word Ways. For any tyros, we briefly recap the rules.

"Put That In Your Pipe And Chew It!", Don Hauptman

Word Ways

In two previous Word Ways articles (August 2001 and May 2004), I quoted choice examples of amusing mixed metaphors I had collected. Since then, I've accumulated many new specimens. They're not difficult to find. Indeed, they leap off the page like a sore thumb!

Three Puzzle Games On Pelargoniums, Jeremiah Farrell, Karen Farrell

Word Ways

For these three puzzle-games we require the 16 word tokens ERN, GEM, GUS, IOS, LAG, LIP, MOA, NIM, NUL, OLE, OUR, PES, RAP, RIG, SAN, and UMP.

The Soldier, Gary Foshee

Word Ways

A poem.

Holiday Limericks, Joseph Teeters

Word Ways

Limericks inspired by the holiday season.

Foshee Magically Interpreted, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Martin Gardner notes that Lewis Carroll begins Alice in Wonderland:

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading.

Gardner now asks the reader to select any of the first 12 words.

Puzzlemints, A. Anil

Word Ways

An assortment of logological riddles for your bemusement. A few are nonsenses but most are "serious" quizzes and research questions.

Pondering With Pegg, Ed Pegg Jr.

Word Ways

From Oscar:
Carbon sulfide
Hot Club de Paris

All The Perfumes Of Arabia, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

Politics and economics have recently brought into sharp focus the Arabic languages, but there was a time when contact between different civilizations was more civilized and when Arabic had an immense effect on the humanities and sciences in the western world. That is why academics and judges and ministers, etc., still wear robes derived from Arab dress. Here we suggest Arabic's influence on western languages.

A Seasonal Puzzle, Dick Hess

Word Ways

Noted puzzlist Dick Hess supplied this poser to friends as a holiday message. Can you solve it?

Doggy Dog World!, Dick Wolfsie

Word Ways

The other day I was reading a novel and I saw the following sentence:
"If you think I'm going out with you anymore, you have another think coming."

Odes From The Odd Topics Society, Howard G. Baetzhold

Word Ways

Butler's Odd Topics Society meets every now and then to discuss Odd Topics of any nature. Professor Baetzhold is the Poet Laureate Odd Topics Society.

Punk Whiz 5, A. Anil

Word Ways

Another misdefinition pun quiz. Numbers in parentheses are the letters in the answer.