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Articles 1411 - 1440 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Word Ways
Instructions to authors wishing to contribute and readers wishing to subscribe.
Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler
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.
Colloquy
Word Ways
Rollin Stearns' fine article on clerihews in this issue reintroduces the term to new readers. Rollin tried his hand at limericks too, submitting this effort:
A puzzler ferociously feral,
Whose muzzle puts wizards in peril
Roared jeremiads
At druids and dryads
While guzzling his beer by the barrel.
Clerihews: A Personal History, Rollin Stearns
Clerihews: A Personal History, Rollin Stearns
Word Ways
It was many years ago that I first became acquainted with a form of light verse called a clerihew. At the time I was reading some poetry by W. H. Auden. Most of Auden's poetry was serious, but some of it was light, and I especially liked the following:
James Watt
Was the hard-boiled kind of Scot
He thought any dream
Sheer waste of steam.
Infatuation, Win Emmons
A Puzzler, Harold Jacobs
A Puzzler, Harold Jacobs
Word Ways
Harold submits this fine poser. Can you fill in the blanks with no hints? The answer will run on our website in a few weeks.
Hexagons And Their Edges, Susan Thorpe
Hexagons And Their Edges, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
In Edge Words (WW98274), Upward Edge Words (WW2006235) and Generic Edges (WW2007235), the letters of a word are arranged, in the order in which they occur in the word (1, 2, 3 ...), to make a range of forms - triangles, pentagons and rhombuses (see below respectively).
The Resilience Of The Lambs, A. Ross Eckler
The Resilience Of The Lambs, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
A century and three quarters after "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was published, residents of Sterling, Massachusetts and Newport, New Hampshire are still arguing over the ownership of this famous little ditty about the faithful lamb and unwelcoming schoolteacher. According to Sterling, the Mary of the poem was a girl named Mary Sawyer, born there in 1806. One day in 1815 her devoted lamb followed her to school and up the classroom aisle when she was asked to recite a lesson. The teacher, alas, turned the lamb out.
Self-Expressive Number Names, A. Ross Eckler
Self-Expressive Number Names, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
If one sets A=1, B=2, ... Z=26, it is well-known that no number-name is self expressive (15+14+5 does not add to ONE, 20+23+15 to TWO, etc.). However, there are other ways to arithmetically combine numbers.
Mary's Lamb, Win Emmons
Colloquy
Word Ways
In May of 2007 the United States Postal Service did away with all the cheaper rates for foreign mail. All mail now must go at air mail rates, sometimes as much as nearly $10 per issue. In addition certain United States special rates have been abolished. Word Ways must now be delivered by first class mail to domestic subscribers and by air mail on a sliding scale to foreign readers. Please check our new rates on the inside front cover. These rates are designed so that Word Ways can break even in its production - we do not aspire to …
Scrabble Algebra, David Morice
Scrabble Algebra, David Morice
Word Ways
In the Aug 1991 Kickshaws, I noted that TWELVE is the only self-referential number in Scrabble. That is, the Scrabble values of the six letters add up to the number itself: 1 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 4 +1 = 12. In the Nov 1991 Kickshaws, Jeff Grant suggested spelling the numbers on a Scrabble board, which has double and triple letter and word squares, and using that method he found that the following are self-referential.
Concatenating Letter Ranks, Roger Bilisoly
Concatenating Letter Ranks, Roger Bilisoly
Word Ways
This note is inspired by Numbo-Carrean, which was introduced in Ross Eckler's Word Recreations [1] in the chapter called "Ten Logotopian Lingos." This lingo uses words with the following property: when each letter is replaced by its letter rank (or alphabetic position number), the resulting number is a perfect square. That is, a is replaced by 1, b by 2, c by 3, and so forth, and these numbers are concatenated.
Spoonergrams Ii, Jim Puder
Spoonergrams Ii, Jim Puder
Word Ways
Spooneristic switches of sounds between words can occur not just in pairs of words, but in trios, quartets, etc. of words as well. When every word in a group of n words partakes of an equivalent exchange of sounds with every other word in the group, the result can be graphically represented as an array of n words called a spoonergram.
Anacrograms 3: Quotations, A. Anil
Anacrograms 3: Quotations, A. Anil
Word Ways
Anacrograms, introduced in May, are anagrams of the acrostics (first letters) of expressions, a sort of wheels-within-wheels word play. Part 2 in August gave examples from common idioms and sayings. Here are examples from a wide variety of quotations, familiar and not. All results - paraphrases, follow-ons and 'antonyms' - are combined in alphabetical order by author, except for a dozen of the more successful efforts which are featured on this page in no particular order.
Flack Jackets And Increased Salvation, Don Hauptman
Flack Jackets And Increased Salvation, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
For a book in progress, I continue to compile entertaining published anomalies and errors, appending to each a waggish response - a format popularized by The New Yorker. Contributions are invited; please send candidates to the above email address.
Chemical Elements Inside Of Other Elements, Antonio Joaquin Franco Mariscal
Chemical Elements Inside Of Other Elements, Antonio Joaquin Franco Mariscal
Word Ways
The names of the chemical elements have received a certain amount of attention in Word Ways over the years. Borgmann (1968) presented a quiz on 20 transposed element names in the first issue of Word Ways. Other articles have documented more extensive transpositions of element names (Borgmann, 1974, 1978; Francis 1977) and where an element did not have a transposition, Francis (1977) offered the shortest possible transadditions of the element names.
Palindromic Movie Reviews, Win Emmons
Palindromic Movie Reviews, Win Emmons
Word Ways
In two articles in 1995 issues of Word Ways Ross Eckler presented anagrammatic movie reviews. That is, they were movie reviews obtained by anagramming the movie's title. In that spirit I present here Palindromic Movie Reviews. There is, of course, a natural limitation to what can be said given the constraints of having the title actually appear reversed in the text, so these do not pretend to be "actual discussions", as it were, of the movie, but simply opinions about the film, often intended to be spoken to a friend, for example.
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Instructions To Authors, Subscribers
Word Ways
Instructions to authors interested in contributing and readers interested in subscribing.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.
Sequences Within, Susan Thorpe
Sequences Within, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Starting with two or more generic sequences, there are several ways in which they may be arranged in relation to each other, sometimes forming a word.
Double Triples, Steve Kahan
Double Triples, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
A double triple is a pair of identical triads that appears consecutively in a word, phrase or name. For example, the word MURMURED contains the double triple MUR, while the phrase ONE PER PERSON contains the double triple PER. The residue of a word, phrase or name that contains a double triple results from removing it and listing the remaining letters in their order of appearance. Accordingly, ED is the residue of MURMURED, while ONESON is the residue of ONE PER PERSON.
More Consecutive Palindromic Triads, Steve Kahan
More Consecutive Palindromic Triads, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
As introduced in Volume 40, Number 2 of Word Ways, this word b e E K E E P E r contains a pair of consecutive palindromic triads - E K E and E P E. Removing both and running the remaining letters together, what remains is b e r. The twenty five new examples presented below represent the residues after a pair of consecutive palindromic triads has been excised from a familiar word, phrase, or name.
Front Cover, Publication Information
Front Cover, Publication Information
Word Ways
Front Cover, Publication Information, Table of Contents
Most-Perfect Word Magic, Oscar Thumpbindle
Most-Perfect Word Magic, Oscar Thumpbindle
Word Ways
Here is a rather hard puzzle. Assign the sixteen numbers 1 through 15 to the letters of OSCAR THUMPBINDLE so that the eight words BASH, BUMP, CLAD, CURE, HORN, MIND, PLOT, and SITE each sume to 30. There are 86 ways four of the sixteen numbers can sum to 30 and therein lies the puzzle's difficulty.
Hot Buns, Win Emmons