Digital Commons Network^™

Four Out Of Five, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Keen Scrabble-player and wordsmith Michael Vnuk of Annerley in Queenland, Australia wrote to me recently:

Snakes And Ladders, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

Word chains or ladders have been a source of challenge and enjoyment since their invention as "doublets" by Lewis Carroll over a century ago, in 1879. They were called Transformations by "Professor" Hofmann. Despite significant advances since Ross Eckler published his first study of word graphs (networks), there still remain challenges for those who relish hard work, and easier challenges for those seeking mere enjoyment.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Heckle The Feckless Eckler

Word Ways

By now most of you have figured out my real identity, and know that I've written virtually all of the great classics of the last four centuries, plus most of the Word Ways. But few know that not only did I write the original "Mary Had A Little Lamb," but all, yes ALL of the lipograms of the poem attributed to A. Ross Eckler.

Fatback's Setback, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Scarfin' Fatback challenges me to write an O-less parody of Frost's Stopping by Woods, anguish languishing each line as much as possible. I respond with this denial of his authorship of Mary's Liopgrams and other great literature.

Wordplay In The L. Frank Baum Fantasies, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and thirteen other Oz books, also wrote many fantasies for children that did not have Oz as a setting. In all these books he liked to make up names for persons, places, and things. These names often involved word play. Puns were the most common form, but Baum also indulged in anagrams, spoonerisms, reversals, and other forms of linguistic whimsies.

German Humour, Peter Newby

Word Ways

A Jew, fleeing form the Gestapo, sought sanctuary in a crowded church. When the priest saw the secret state police checking his congregation he announced fearfully "All Jews to leave the church". The Jew remained in his pew and continued his silent prayers and, once again, the priest made his cowardly announcement.

Removing Embedded Letter Patterns, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

This is similar to the words within words game in which an embedded word is removed from a longer word to make a third word by joining the letters remaining at the beginning and end of the original word. For example, removing MEMBER from CAMEMBERT makes CAT.

Lima Item, William Webster

Word Ways

Each word can be anagrammed to an OSPD word (except for proper names); all apostrophes are omitted (SIT = IT'S). The translation of this story appears in Answers and Solutions.

False Spanish Friends, Jay Ames

Word Ways

Many Spanish words look the same as their English counterparts--but not all! Here's a sampling of some false friends, much like the French ones listed in the August 1975 and February 1976 Word Ways.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Super Duper Loopers, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

The letters of some words can travel in a circle, like the whirling of juggled balls. Such words -- in which the first letter can be moved from frontword to backword to form another word -- have been labeled "cyclic transposals." I prefer the more straightforward term "looping anagrams."

Bananagrams, Edmund Conti

Word Ways

Bananagrams--anagrams to drive you bananas--consist of rhymed couplets, each one containing a pair of anagrams to be solved. One of the rhyming words will always be an anagram, and the couplet itself will offer clues to help solve the anagrams. Answers will be in found in Answers and Solutions at the end of the issue.

Kickshaws, Dave Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

A "Hare-Owing" Experience, Robert F. Fleissner

Word Ways

W. H. Auden's Academic Graffiti (Faber & Faber, London 1971) upon first reading may appear to contain little else than slightly satirical examples of nonsense verse in the familiar tradition of Edward Lear. Its most obvious analogue would appear to be with T. S. Eliot's Book of Practical Cats, but just as at least one of Eliot's prime feline creations had a basis in 19th-century fiction, in the depiction of Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty (namely his tom, Macavity, as "The Napoleon of Crime"), so it is permissible that Auden's lyrical sketches can have more meaning than at first meets the …

Arthur's Alphabetic Annals, Dave Morice

Word Ways

This logological legend relates the tale of King Arthur and his little-known first queen, Rebecca. With the help of Merlin and other loyal aides, Arthur tries in vain to protect Camelot from his enemies, including Midas, Xerxes, Xanthippe, and Zeno, who conspire with Rebecca to take over the throne. The mists of their pasts reveal the myths of their paths.

Mary's Wayward Letter-Lambs, James Puder

Word Ways

In his article "Mary Had a Letter Lamb" in the May 1997 Word Ways, Richard Lederer assembled a number of logological variations, as composed by several authors, on Sarah Josepha Hale's familiar "Mary had a little lamb..." poem. Perceiving that there still seemed to be a few unfilled niches left in the letter-lamb canon, I felt inspired to try my own hand at the form.

Mediocre Napoleonic Palindromes, Howard Richler

Word Ways

As is known by any self-respecting Francophile, the above palindrome is but one in a long litany of egregious examples of English-language imperialism. It purports that the greatest military mind of all time, the Emperor Napoleon, took to raving in English palindromes while enisled at Elba. Mon dieu!

Aeiou In Order, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

There exist thousands of words which embody each of the five vowels A.E.I.O. and U once only, in any order (AEIOU words). In "AEIOU Words in Biology" in the November 1993 and February 1994 issues of Word Ways. I presented various categories of these AEIOU words. Since that time I Have been collecting examples which fall into the category entitled AEIOUS.

Crazy As A Betsy Bug, Mary Christine Craig

Word Ways

Every part of the country has its own unique expressions. Here are some good ones taken (well, almost) out of the mouths of Louisiana folks from around these parts.

Sheesh! A Yiddish Quiz!, Leonard Ashley

Word Ways

Done-shmone already! So the redoubtable Leo Rosten has published two books on Yiddish (The Joys of Yiddish and Horray for Yiddish), and lots of other people have written on the subject, too. So why, for us guys especially, wouldn't someone do a little piece on a few of the most colorful words? It couldn't hurt! From German, from Polish, from Hebrew, from American slang, here are 25 Yiddish words which have attained currency in at least some metropolitan areas of these United States. For your convenience, all of them begin with SH.

Disguising The Kgb Senorita, Peter Newby

Word Ways

A simple cipher which merely shuffles the alphabet such that (say) A is represented by Q and B by G is child's play for a codebreaker. The plethora of Q in a message immediately suggests itself as a SENORITA letter and, for example, what else could ZQPQTQPQWQXQZQ by other than TARAMARASALATA? Notwithstanding such as KRALL and AARDVARK, a double Q denies the prospect of Q being A, but it could be virtually any of the other popular letters of the AEINORST alphome, and all one does is consider its occurrences elsewhere in the message.

Montey, A Word Game Hustle, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Three-card monte ("find the lady") is a scam sometimes perpetrated on the streets of large cities. The sharper places a queen and two other cards face downward, shuffles them around, and invites the bystanders to bet on which card is the queen. Somehow, the bystanders are always wrong. In monte, as in the shell game, thimblerig and other like hustles, the scam artist will use sleight of hand to perform his tricks. In our word game Montey (name derived from "etymon") we will use abstract algebra instead of sleight of hand to astound the audience.

Elf Eyrie, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

Back by popular demand, a big raise, and a high, windowed corner office with the Eames chair (just kidding about the chair, etc.). Scarfin Fatback has suggested a more mature approach to wordplay. Instead of the erstwhile fledgling's ten puny playforms per issue, each Anderson contribution should concentrate on one type of wordplay. The parrot tease in this column is inspired by a Dave Morice suggestion: parody Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, a poem almost beyond compare... cool yet passionate, restrained yet tempestuous, insouciant yet demure, saucy yet significant...

Statenames Revisited, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Over the years, the names of the 50 states of the USA have been pored over in the pages of Word Ways. Transposals of the statenames have been logged for most of them. Some examples: INDIANA anidian, MINNESOTA nominates, NEW YORK ywroken, TEXAS taxes, WASHINGTON nowanights.

The Xx Bigram, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

"A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia" compiled by Jeff Miller of New Port Richey, Florida can be found on the Internet. In the October 1997 update, it is stated that

"Aitch" Aches (Pierce On It!), A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rought winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Animal Play, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

The animal kingdom is on the brink of extinction so it is essential that the males and females make contact. Successive words of a chain make either a single word (e.g. OVERLOOK) or a two-word phrase (e.g. MYSTERY TOUR) Rearranged, the letters of the bracketed phrase make the missing words. For example, FLY ----- ---- ----- FLY (OH, WE PREPARE USA) has the answer FLY-PAPER-WARE-HOUSE-FLY.

Kickshaws, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.