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Front Cover And Publication Information
Front Cover And Publication Information
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue, including a table of contents.
A Poem, J. James Mancuso
Highly Irregular Verbs, Richard Lederer, Kern Mann
Highly Irregular Verbs, Richard Lederer, Kern Mann
Word Ways
Most English adjectives take on the suffixes -er and est as they journey from their base forms to their comparative and superlative incarnations, as in smart smarter smartest and funny funnier funniest. Some intrepid logologists have created sequences of unrelated words that look like adjectival progressions but aren't.
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In the August 1986 Word Ways, Willard Espy presented a clever poem with its modus operandi explained in the last three lines.
Hiya, Ed!, Steve Kahan
Hiya, Ed!, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
A collage of colleges is camouflaged within the universe of universities presented in the twenty-question exam that follows. Simply extract a letter from each word in the list, implant another in its place, and scramble the resulting collection of characters to reveal the requisite institute of advanced learning. To wit, ORALLY would become BAYLOR upon rearrangement after "B" replaces one of the "L"s.
Sherlockiana, Dana Richards
Sherlockiana, Dana Richards
Word Ways
Word Puzzles selected from "Victorian Engimas and Sherlockian Puzzles" by the author.
Magic In Six Dimensions, Jeremiah Farrell
Magic In Six Dimensions, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
A royal flush in poker consists of the ace, king, queen, jack and ten, all in the same suit. Our magic begins by having the spectator choose one of the cards in any of the four royal flushes. This choice could be by random draw or the spectator can merely think of one of the 20 cards. In either case he does not inform the magician of his choice but will write it on a slip of paper for future reference.
Name Categories, Lacey Echols
Name Categories, Lacey Echols
Word Ways
To begin, write your last name across the top of the grid. You should have enough columns for each letter in your name. For each category in the left column, fill in the cells with a word beginning with the letter in the top row. If duplicate letters appear in the top row, then you should think of two different words for that category. Additional categories could be added or exchanged for the ones below.
"Redun-Dances": Humorous Redundancies, Don Hauptman
"Redun-Dances": Humorous Redundancies, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
For many years, I have archly interpolated into written and spoken communications what I call "redun-dances": redundancies used deliberately for humorous effect.
Flagging Spirits, Ronnie B. Kon
Flagging Spirits, Ronnie B. Kon
Word Ways
In the February 2010 Look Back! column, Ross Eckler renews his wife Faith's request from the August 1981 Kickshaws for an answer to a riddle from a 1831 British publication. He notes that a year's subscription to Word Ways was offered for the solution, but that it went unclaimed. Apropos of nothing, one wonders whether that means that the offer is still open.
Letter Height Lipograms, A. Anil
Letter Height Lipograms, A. Anil
Word Ways
lip-marylambs mars wee ewe mar owns a wee ewe; ewe owns a snow over. mars moves cause ewe same sure moves. as mar comes on courses, so ewe comes on. -- a no-no! ewe amuses coursers, roar "ewe on course! eux-eux-eux!"
Martin Gardner Et La Poesie, Alain Zalmanski
Martin Gardner Et La Poesie, Alain Zalmanski
Word Ways
Celebration of Mind: Gathering for Gardner
Acrostic Dictionary Of Wordplay Terms, A. Anil
Acrostic Dictionary Of Wordplay Terms, A. Anil
Word Ways
A bunch of definitive reverse acrostics presented in February ('10-8) included seven wordplay terms, with especially fun ones for logology and logophile. I thought a rather immoderate list of wordplay terms similarly defined might be appreciated by logology fans. Read the definitions first. If they are not clear, then consult the examples, which are given as "answers" if needed.
Back Cover
Word Ways
Back cover of this issue, including instructions for authors and subscribers.
Deep Acrostics, A. Anil
Deep Acrostics, A. Anil
Word Ways
Acronyms use the first letter of each word of a name. Diacronyms instead use the first two letters of names. While not yet called that, they featured in "Short People" in the November issue. Diacrostics are diacronyms of whole sentences. Unlike aconyms, which usually have to be defined and memorised, diacrostics may be -- and triacrostics often are -- directly readable, especially if the context is known, the language is simple, or the sentence is a familiar quotation.
Arbitrary Words, Susan Thorpe
Arbitrary Words, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
This is a sequel to Unusual Words (Word Ways 2008145) which examines words with single like letters having different pronunciations, thus being represented by different phonetic symbols. Arbitrary Words looks at words with two like bigrams which have different pronunciations and different phonetic symbols. ARBITRARY is one such word, the first AR being pronounced as the A in bath, but the second AR as the AR in arise. Words in which one of the two bigram letters is represented by the same phonetic symbol in both bigrams are not included.
Punk Whiz 12, A. Anil
Punk Whiz 12, A. Anil
Word Ways
Another Pun Quiz. The misdefinitions usually also hint at the actual meanings, as in cryptic crosswords.
Dictionary Of American Regional English: Some Transposals, Darryl Francis
Dictionary Of American Regional English: Some Transposals, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
When the American Dialect Society (ADS) was founded in 1889, one of the major goals of its charger members was to do for the United States what Joseph Wright was doing for England in compiling his English Dialect Dictionary. But of course the task of making a dictionary of the dialects of the United States was going to be a lot bigger because of the size of the country. So the Society began by publishing word lists made by professors who jotted down unfamiliar terms or expressions as they visited places new to them. For decades, lists were published …
A Christmas Wish, Simon Nightingale, Bridget Nightingale
The Adaption Of Akkadian Into Cuneiform, Kristin M. Pearce
The Adaption Of Akkadian Into Cuneiform, Kristin M. Pearce
Colonial Academic Alliance Undergraduate Research Journal
The written history of the Ancient Near East began when cuneiform was invented, ca 3200 BCE. Cuneiform became a very adaptable writing system that was attested in various forms for nearly three millennia. Cuneiform was created to represent the language isolate of Sumerian and its first adaptation was into the Semitic language of Eblaite. However the most successful adaptation of the cuneiform writing system occurred with Akkadian. Old Akkadian was adapted into cuneiform around 2350 BCE. The adaptation of cuneiform to Akkadian is intricately connected to the respect the Akkadian/Semitic speaking scribes felt cuneiform deserved. Old Akkadian cuneiform takes into …
The Four Key Factors That Drive Successful Decisions, Joseph Yeager, Linda Sommer
The Four Key Factors That Drive Successful Decisions, Joseph Yeager, Linda Sommer
The Qualitative Report
The mechanisms of language operate as the vehicles for motivation, thinking and deciding. Language is a replica, a model, a representational map of reality. In the same way that a flawed roadmap will misrepresent reality and mislead a traveler, a flawed linguistic rationale will mislead a decision maker in any situation. In high-stakes situations that occur in globalized organizations, such as the current economic meltdown, the importance and consequences of flawed linguistic rationales are obvious. Simple suggestions for self examination of linguistic rationales are offered.
New Etruscan Inscriptions On The Web, Dominique Briquel
New Etruscan Inscriptions On The Web, Dominique Briquel
Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies
No abstract provided.
Review Of Jorma Kaimio, The Cippus Inscriptions Of The Museo Nazionale Di Tarquinia, Michael Weiss
Review Of Jorma Kaimio, The Cippus Inscriptions Of The Museo Nazionale Di Tarquinia, Michael Weiss
Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies
No abstract provided.
Martin Gardner
Word Ways
Martin Gardner died on Saturday, May 22, 2010. He was 95. It was at his behest that Word Ways was founded in 1968, and thus every issue of our journal will remain a memorial to him.
By The Numbers, Jon Racherbaumer
By The Numbers, Jon Racherbaumer
Word Ways
This article originally was part of Racherbaumer's column "On the Slant" in the August 2010 issue of GENII magazine. It is used with permission.
80 Years Of Gardner Magic, Jeremiah Farrell, Karen Farrell
80 Years Of Gardner Magic, Jeremiah Farrell, Karen Farrell
Word Ways
The magician and historiam Max Maven poignantly eulogized Martin Gardner in his article "In Memoriam" in the July 2010 issue of GENII magazine. Commenting on the diverse interests of Gardner in non-fiction, puzzles, recreational mathematics, philosophy, games, skepticism, word play and magic, Maven noted: "So far as is known, the final Gardner publication during his lifetime was a magic trick that he contributed to the May 2010 issue of Word Ways, a quarterly journal with a small but fervent readership. I will mention, without humility, that the trick was based on one of mine -- which in turn was …
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In a sense Martin Gardner was the founder of Word Ways, for he suggested the idea of such a magazine to Greenwood Periodicals and proposed Dmitri Borgmann as its first editor. After only a year as the editor, Dmitri resigned in November 1968 when Greenwood refused to pay him a salary of $5,000 per year. When Howard Bergerson, recruited by Joe Madachy (the editor of another Greenwood journal), agreed to be editor without salary, Dmitri angrily wrote him to say that he considered Howard's action "extremely hostile and downright treacherous" and that Howard would never hear from him again.