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Fortune Cookie Fortunes, Dave Morice
Fortune Cookie Fortunes, Dave Morice
Word Ways
I've written fortune cookie fortunes for a long time, but I haven't sold any of them. I do it just in case I run across a fortune cookie publisher who needs a few gems of wisdom for that thin piece of paper that is to a fortune cookie what the cream filling is to a Hostess Cupcake. Here are some of my fortune cookie fortunes--all guaranteed true.
Panalphabetic Windows In Literature, Michael Keith
Panalphabetic Windows In Literature, Michael Keith
Word Ways
The pangrammatic window in running text has been extensively studied, but its cousin in panalphabetic window (containing each letter of the alphabet at least once, and in alphabetical order) has been somewhat neglected. In this note I explore accidental panalphabetic windows in existing works of literature. Specifically, the 1500 works of the Project Gutenberg CD-ROMs were examined by a computer program to determine the smallest window in each, after which some of the more remarkable ones were culled for presentation here.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 35 Issue 1
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 35 Issue 1
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
An Automatic Palindrome Generator, Bill A. O'Connor
An Automatic Palindrome Generator, Bill A. O'Connor
Word Ways
In 1984 Dan Hoey, a US naval mathematician, wrote a computer which he used to create a 540-word expansion of Leigh Mercer's "Panama" palindrome (PD). It began "A man, a plan, a caret, a ban, a myriad, a sum, a lac..." and ended "...a calmus, a diaryman, a bater, a canal Panama." (For the full PD, plus additional information, see http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/phahn/anagrams/panama/htm.)
Fractured English Defractured, Don Hauptman
Fractured English Defractured, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
In the July 22, 1990 issue of The New York Times Magazine. Bill Bryson guest-wrote the "On Language" column, substituting for the vacationing William Safire. Titled "A Taste for Scrambled English," the column focuses on the garbling of American English around the world.
Super-Ideal Seven-Letter Word Ladders, Rex Gooch
Super-Ideal Seven-Letter Word Ladders, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
In the case of 7-letter words, almost one-third are heterograms, the fraction of isolanos decreases to about a quarter, and for the first time we have some onalosis (words in which each letter can be changed independently to make another word). Moreover, we only have to find eight related words for each ladder. These facts mean that the number of ladders starting and ending with heterograms with every letter differing between the two words, increase over a thousandfold to nearly 100,00, and more common words appear.
Six-Letter Connoisseur's Ladders, Rex Gooch
Six-Letter Connoisseur's Ladders, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
By the time we reach six-letter words, conditions for superior ladders are much improved: nearly one-half of six-letter words are heterograms (all letters are different), the fraction of isolanos (words which have no neighbours) decreases to less than one-tenth, there is a reasonable number of onalosis (words which have neighbours for each letter change), and each word has on average almost six neighbours (one for each letter). In this article, we therefore only consider ladders in which the terminal words are heterograms, with corresponding letters different, and with letters replaced in order. Even so, there are about fifty thousand of …
Alphabetically Ordered Prose, Richard Sabey
Alphabetically Ordered Prose, Richard Sabey
Word Ways
Absolutely accurate alphabetical arrangement as basic constraint determines eligibility. Elsewhere, evidently, examples exist. Here, however, I implicitly include inflated initial iteration. Judiciously, keep lengthy lists meaningful. Mind, moreover, my not ordaining panalphabetism, pangrams quite readily require some texts to use (usually) utterly vapid verbiage, "xylophone", "your", "zippers".
Knotted Word Worms, Michael Keith
Knotted Word Worms, Michael Keith
Word Ways
In an article in the August 1993 Word Ways, Ross Eckler introduced the concept of a word worm, an object defined on the three-dimensional lattice of integer-valued points. Each point on this lattice has 26 neighbors which can be reached by a single orthogonal or diagonal step. These 26 stepping directions are identified with the 26 letters of the alphabet as shown in Figure 1. This positive X direction is defined by the N-step, the positive Y direction, by the K-step, and the positive Z direction, by the E step.
Clock Words, Susan Thorpe
Clock Words, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
To understand my episode of horological horror, various things need to be explained. I began by assigning a number of minutes to each letter of the alphabet so that A occupies one minute, B two minutes, C three minutes through Z 26 minutes. The time occupied by a word is therefore equal to the sum of the minutes occupied b y each of its letters. Thus the word TIME occupies a period of 47 = 20 + 9 + 13 + 5 minutes.
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
How Many Anagrams Are There?, Rex Gooch
How Many Anagrams Are There?, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
This short article was prompted by the formula for Prob(N) in Michael Keith's "What are the odds that X is an anagram of Y?" in Word Ways, August 2000. It seemed to me that multiplying the values of that function by the square of the number of words of a given length might be expected to give an estimate of the number of words of a given length that are permutations of another word.
Near-Ideal Eight-Letter Word Ladders, Rex Gooch
Near-Ideal Eight-Letter Word Ladders, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
As we move from 9- to 8-letter words, the number of neighbours per word increases by one-third, so the number of ideal ladders (those which change every letter in the minimum number of steps) jumps from about 50 to a few thousand. The percentage of heterograms doubles to a significant 20 per cent, so that the number of ladders between heterograms (with just one unchanged letter in the eight steps) explodes to over six thousand. Combining these facts, for the first time we find ideal ladders between heterograms, thus fulfilling the first three conditions for the elusive Connoisseur's Ladder. The …
Generalized Alternades: Part 2, Rex Gooch
Generalized Alternades: Part 2, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
For a discussion of Generalized Alternades the reader is referred to the first part of this article in the August 2000 Word Ways. There examples of the simplest kind of alternade were given: single words with component parts read in the same directions, as TRIENNIALLY = TINILY + RENAL (stride length 2) or PACIFICATORY = PICO + AFAR + CITY (stride length 3).
Art Xtra, A. Ross Eckler
Art Xtra, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Daniel McGarth writes "Exxon is one of my favorite words. It occurred to me this morning the question of whether there is any way that you could create a palindrome containing that word..."
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 33 Issue 4
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 33 Issue 4
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Multiple Bigrams, Susan Thorpe
Multiple Bigrams, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
A group of two successive letters is called a bigram. There are 26 different bigrams beginning with each letter of the alphabet making a total of 26x26 = 676 different bigrams. The word BIGRAM itself incorporates the five bigrams BI, IG, GR, RA and AM, and none of them is repeated. COCOa, DEriDE, IOnizatIOn and tORpOR, on the other hand, each contain a pair of identical bigrams and there are thousands of these double bigram words ("Miami Words" in the February 2000 Word Ways are a special kind of double bigram word). Somewhat less common are words such as fINgerprINtINg …
Aeiou: Supervocalics In Webster's Third, Eric W. Chaikin
Aeiou: Supervocalics In Webster's Third, Eric W. Chaikin
Word Ways
FOUNDING FATHERS and WOMAN SUFFRAGISTS, get out your FOUNTAIN PENS-it's time for another visit to the world of AEIOU. To do justice to my fascination with all things AEIOU, I recently introduced the term SUPERVOCALIC to refer to any item, be it word, phrase or proper noun, containing each of the five vowels once and only once, and no Y. The term is modeled on the existing word 'univocalic' which describes a word or phrase that contains only one vowel (potentially repeated, as in 'Mississippi' or Ellen DeGeneres'). It has the added appeal of being self-referential, that is to say …
The Pangram Film Festival Revisited, Richard Sabey
The Pangram Film Festival Revisited, Richard Sabey
Word Ways
In the February 2000 issue of Word Ways, Douglas Fink reported on the Pangram Film Festival. The idea is to construct a list of film titles which are collectively a pangram (i.e., they use every letter of the alphabet) which is a heterogram (i.e., they do not use any letter more than once). Digits and punctuation may be used freely. Douglas's article raised questions as to what superlatives are possible among heterogram pangram film lists (from now on in this article, usually just "lists"). Here are some of my answers to this question, followed by questions of my own.
My Life In The Headlines, William Young
My Life In The Headlines, William Young
Word Ways
I frequently talk to reporters when i am at work. My name has appeared in my publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and even People Magazine. I used to enjoy being quoted, but now I would prefer that "William Young" never be used as a source for information. The possibilities of misquotations and lots of follow-up calls far outweigh any pleasure I feel upon seeing my name. I now do not even bother to save most of the newsclips that quote me.
The Marathon In Palindromes, Jeff Grant
The Marathon In Palindromes, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
With the encouragement and support of my wife, Pat, I recently walked a marathon (42-195km) for the first time. This experience inspired the following palindromes, purportedly based on quotes collected progressively from a motley crew of international participants during another marathon.
The Listmaker, Dave Morice
The Listmaker, Dave Morice
Word Ways
I have a habit of making up lists. My very first list, which I wrote in first grade, was a list of all lists I wanted to make in the future. That list began with my second list, which was called "a list of my very first list". My third list came next, but I lost it soon after I made it. My fourth was a list of lists I'd lost. My fifth was a list of things that might have been on my third list.
The "A" Game, Richard Lederer
The "A" Game, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
When someone had a good day on the athletic field, we say "She brought her "A" game with her." Now I invite you to play a different kind of "A" game, one involving charaded homogrpahs and homophones. Each answer consists of words that sound alike, although the words may be spelled differently. The answer will always be in the form of "a + word + word" or "word + a + word". From each definition you are to identify the words.
Butterfly Transadditions, Susan Thorpe
Butterfly Transadditions, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Over the years, many examples of transadditions have appeared in Word Ways. A transaddition is the result of adding a letter to a word and then rearranging all the letters to form another, longer word. It is relatively easy to start with a single letter and, step by step, achieve transadditions up to length 7 or 8 letters. Longer ones are more difficult.
Textual Logology, A. Ross Eckler
Textual Logology, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The most important purpose of Word Ways is to present new logological ideas, showing how far one can move beyond the well-trodden paths of palindromes, anagrams, word squares, lipograms and the like. However, it is also important to step back now and then to observe how disparate parts of logology relate to each other, as can be seen in Making the Alphabet Dance. This article shows how various logological concepts appearing in Word Ways during the past thirty years can be grouped in a new logological field, that of textual logology.
Kickshaws, Dave Morice
Anagrams And Antigrams: An Antigram, Michael Keith
Anagrams And Antigrams: An Antigram, Michael Keith
Word Ways
The two short essays below are transposals of each other (that is, each can be formed by rearranging the letters in the other). More precisely, they are antigrams, since one is an essay on anagrams and the other is an essay on the opposite topic, antigrams.
Asian Mormons, Stuart Kidd
Asian Mormons, Stuart Kidd
Word Ways
Editor's Note: In the August 1992 and February 1994 Word Ways, Harry L. Stern presented a number of poems based on transpostions of friends; names, and in August 1994 Susan Thorpe followed up with a poem on her name. Here is a further example of this genre.
Palindromic Fortune Cookies, John E. Connett
Palindromic Fortune Cookies, John E. Connett
Word Ways
Chinese fortune cookies are famous for their inscrutability; in the May 1988 Kickshaws, Eric Albert reported his favorite, "He Is Kissing a Triding Keepsake Of Yours". Short palindromes are similar, often giving us a skewed view of reality.