Digital Commons Network^™

New York Times Crossword Goofs, Will Shortz

Word Ways

It would be wonderful to declare that as crossword editor I never let an error get into a published puzzle in the New York Times.

Wonderful, but, sadly, not true.

Despite careful checking of every puzzle, and testing and rechecking by a crack backup team (currently six people - Frank Longo, Nancy Schuster, David Rosen, Evie Eysenburg, Ellen Ripstein, and Martin Herbach), sharp-eyed Times readers catch me in about a dozen mistakes a year. And they aren't bashful about letting me know.

Instructions To Authors, Subscribers

Word Ways

Instructions to authors interested in contributing and readers interested in subscribing.

O Ye Of Little, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

FAITH ECKLER has a FICKLE HEART. In isolation, however, FAITH is not the easiest of names when it comes to indulging in word play. Like her husband, she is monosyllabic. The very first thing that struck me about FAITH is that she is made of straight line letters, unlike ROSS who is 'curvy almost to a T' (oxymoron?).

Editorial

Word Ways

This issue of Word Ways is a festschrift in honor of our venerable editor, A. Ross Eckler and his wife Faith who, after 37 years, have decided to turn over the editorial reins to me. All the authors contained herein (with the exception of Ross himself of course to whom this was supposed to be a surprise) dedicate their articles to both of them.

Rosswords, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

The ROSS CROWD likes a CROSSWORD. An apposite transposal. Let us begin by discovering what Ross's name offers by way of transposals.

A Twelve-Square?, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

Happy enough to have found 10- and 11-squares, I then heard with a sense of foreboding that Ross Eckler was retiring as editor. With more time at his disposal, perhaps he would pre-empt my discovery of the twelve square, an object which I can scarcely believe is possible (It requires about four million 12-letter words). I fear to lose my reputation as the guru of large squares.

Transposals And Transadditions, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

For the uninitiated, searching for Ross Eckler may be simply a matter of using Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia. Go to Wikipedia, type in Ross Eckler, and you will be directed to a short item on Ross Eckler (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Eckler). Perhaps now that he's stepped down as editor of Word Ways, Ross may have plenty of spare time on his hands and might wish to expand the Wikipedia article bearing his name. It certainly needs considerable expansion to do justice to Ross' sterling work with Word Ways over the last four decades.

Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Over the years Word Ways has displayed a varied logological corpus. In this column I revisit forgotten ideas, connect seemingly-disparate concepts, and suggest further investigations.

Televising 9/11 And Its Aftermath: The Framing Of George W. Bush’S Faith-Based Politics Of Good And Evil, Gary Edgerton

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

For most of the four days following 9/11, TV viewers around the world were mesmerised by unthinkable images. Television brought home to Americans especially the polarising effects of the post-Cold War world, including the backlash of Islamic fundamentalism and the imminent threat of future terrorist attacks. A formulaic narrative quickly emerged; ordinary police and firefighters took the lead as America’s national heroes, while Osama bin Laden and the rest of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rose up as villains. On September 12, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush gave voice to this mythic small-screen storyline as “a monumental struggle of good …

Tying It All Together: Implications For Classrooms, Schools, And Districts, Ryan Flessner, Kenneth Zeichner, Kalani Eggington

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Ryan Flessner, Kenneth Zeichner, and Kalani Eggington's contribution to "Creating Equitable Classrooms through Action Research"

Eugene Jolas’S Multilingual New Occident, Ania Spyra

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Abstract not available

A Woman's Kind Of Love: Female Longing In The Tamil Alvar Poetry, Archana Venkatesan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In the eighth section of Andal's Nacciyar Tirumoli, a woman calls to the clouds and bids them to take a message of love to her delinquent lover, Vishnu, here figured as the lord of Venkatam. In the opening verse of the decad, she begins by plaintively questioning the clouds of her beloved's whereabouts only to end with a bitter complaint about her sullied womanhood -- pen-nirmai. Bracketed by her eager questions -- "has the lord of Venkatam come with you" -- and her bitter complaint -- "how does this bring him pride" -- is the landscape of her …

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 39 Issue 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Editorial

Word Ways

Thirty-seven years... hundreds of authors... thousands of articles. It's been a glorious adventure, and I've enjoyed every moment of it, but nothing lasts forever. It's time to give someone else a chance to experience these pleasures. Starting with the Feb 2007 issue, Jeremiah Farrell, an emeritus professor of mathematics at Butler University and a Word Ways author since Aug 1983, will take over the editorship with his wife Karen. I plan to continue writing Word Ways articles.

The Great Dog Mystery, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Former Kickshaws editor Dave Silverman alluded to the Great Dog Mystery in several letters to the editor from 1972 to 1975.

Half-Alphabet Nursery Rhymes, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Well, no, I can't - because no such place exists. In the Aug 1969 Word Ways I wrote "Mary Had a Lipogram" which featured her minus the letters A,E,T,H,S in turn, and as a lagniappe I wrote of her using only half the alphabet. It's time to validate these Internet claims and provide readers with such a collection. Single-letter lipograms are not of a challenge, so I have written half-alphabet ones for a variety of nursery rhymes. To keep the job from becoming inordinately difficult, I have tailored the half-alphabets to the individual stories.

Contrary Cognomina, John Holgate

Word Ways

Many of our surnames have origins in the nomenclature of trades and professions. Once upon a time Smiths were smiths, Butchers were butchers and Carpenters were carpenters. Holgate, for example, derives from the common noun tollgate. Back in the eleventh century my ancestors were rewarded for collecting tolls and swelling the royal coffers with a Norman castle in Shropshire. Nowadays a profession-based patronym does not oblige its owner to continue in the cognominal business. Just as well - I have no desire to work as a toll collector on the motorway or an assessor in the Tax Office.

Signature Puns

Word Ways

In the style of "edifice Wrecks" (Bullwinkle). "Mousey Dung" (Kliban), "You rippa dese, you menna dese!", and David Morice's presidential puns in WW92-171, here's abbrev history of the western world in the form of more or less homophonic puns and phonetic charades on famous names. This style of word play is also known as Anguish Languish and is analysed by the editor in the November 1997 Word Ways (02-276).

Generalised Fibonacci Sums In Words, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

In the November 2004 Kickshaws, Dave Morice noted that, in the word HOW, the sum of the ordinal values of H and O equaled that of W (8+15=23); and similarly for subtraction in WHO 23-8=15.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Attractive Opposites, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Opposites attract. Opposites also attract people who love to mess around with word meanings and letters. Here's a brief logological taxonomy of 15 yin-yanging patterns.

Aerst Transposals, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

My article "Transposing Rates" in the November 1987 Word Ways has examples for 63 of the 120 possible transposals of the letters AERST. Further research has expanded the collection to 85, with many of the originals entries being improved as well. Abbreviations like ESRTA (Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association) are excluded; however, a couple of derivatives (RTase, TASer) are listed. Names with initials, such as T.S. RAE, are omitted, as are contrived terms and purely foreign words. Due to the nature of the source (Net), some examples may be suspect.

Upwards Edge Words, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

The letters of certain words can be made into one of a series of geometrical forms when arranged, row by row, in the order in which they occur in the word. These forms sometimes exhibit edge words which read upwards, downwards, or both. In Edge Words (WW98274), I searched for right hand and left hand edge words which read downwards.

The "A" List, Steven Kahan

Word Ways

Each entry in the "A" list is made up of two words, names, or phrases that have at least two overlapping letters and in which each blank stands for a consonant, e.g. XAXAXAXXAX (6; 3-4) represents a six-letter word and two-part name or phrase consisting of a three-letter and a four-letter component. As asterisk denotes the word is capitalized. Since there are thirteen letters in all and only ten positions indicated, we can deduce that there is a three-letter overlap.

All-Diagonal 4-Squares With Common Words, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

This last article in the series deals with 4-letter words, which tend to be the most common in use. In the top 87,000 words, there are 5356 of four letters, including 462 reversible words and 24 palindromic words. From these, it was possible to make 5261 squares.

Reverse Engineering, Eric Harshbarger

Word Ways

Abstract unavailable.

Word Networks On Wordlock, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Wordlock, a combination lock using words instead of numbers, were created by Todd Basche, a Silicon Valley executive. Sold by Staples for $5.98 (in blue or black) or $3.90 (in orange), it consists of five independently-rotating rings, yielding one hundred thousand different positions, any one of which the user can select. Because words are more easily remembered than numbers, he inscribed four of the rings with ten different letters each, and the fifth with nine different letters and a blank, allowing the user to pick either a four-letter or a five-letter word.

'Palindrome' Trnas-3 Deletions Revisited, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the August 1989 Word Ways I posed the question

Three letters can be deleted from PALINDROME to leave 120 different groups.

How many of these 120 can be rearranged to form genuine words or terms?

Punk Whiz 3

Word Ways

Pun Quiz: what common phrases or words do these misdefinitions refer to? The numbers tell how many letters are in the words of the answer. But (2/4/4) means the answer is one 11-letter word made up of elements of 2, 4, 1 and 4 letters. My answers are at the back of this issue.

Kickshaws

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.