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Articles 2551 - 2580 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Calendar Curiosa, Monte J. Zerger
Calendar Curiosa, Monte J. Zerger
Word Ways
What do Hallowe'en (OCT 31) and Christmas (DEC 25) have in common beside both being festivals, one commemorating death and the other birth? I'll give you the answers at the end of this article, but the way the dates are expressed inside the parentheses is a hint.
Kickshaws, David Morice
Mallarme's Cigar-Sonnet: Part 2, Paul Maxim
Mallarme's Cigar-Sonnet: Part 2, Paul Maxim
Word Ways
Introduction. This article is the second in a series analyzing Mallarme's hermetic sonnet, Toute l'ame resumee (The whole soul summed up), which he published as "a game" in 1895. In the previous part (February 1996), we showed how the poem's internal dynamic processes are designed around a cryptogrammatic sequence which begins when the letters of la cendre ('ash') are subtracted from son clai baiser de feu ("it's bright kiss of fire"), so as to yield an eleven-letter residue, SOIR BAIS FEU which is then subjected to further processing.
Oh, You Beast!, Kay Haugaard
Oh, You Beast!, Kay Haugaard
Word Ways
Once upon a time there was a young chick who thought the world was her oyster and set out to find the bluebird of happiness. She was no dumb bunny and not the least bit squirrely so she got a bee in her bonnet to join the rat race working in an office as a gopher. Soon she was working in a back room with several others, all crammed in like sardines.
Queen's-Move Graphing Revisited, A. Ross Eckler
Queen's-Move Graphing Revisited, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The February 1996 Word Ways introduced the concept of a queen's-move-graphable word: place the different letters of a word on a chessboard (extended beyond 8x8, if needed) so as to allow a chess queen to move horizontally, vertically or diagonally to spell out the word in the question.
Who's That Again?, Thomas L. Bernard
Who's That Again?, Thomas L. Bernard
Word Ways
When a student came to my office to introduce himself as Roy King, my onomastic perception quotient was immediately activated; I realized that what I had here was a prime example of an onomastic tautology. For the cognoscenti, further explanation of this is probably not necessary, but as I often find myself in the rands of the incognoscenti, let me explain that even though the words have different linguistic origins, they denote the same idea and have the same meaning. (Roy is French or Anglo-American for "King.")
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.
Geograms And Internet Logology, Nyr Indictor
Geograms And Internet Logology, Nyr Indictor
Word Ways
In previous issues readers have been challenged to think of words which are composed of the two-letter state abbreviations, like RIME, PANE, and HIND. Recently, a new set of two-letter abbreviations has received widespread recognition, namely the country codes (International Standards Organization, document ISO 3166) that are used to identify locations of internet users.
A Guide To Body English, Richard Lederer
A Guide To Body English, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
Whether you're a high- or low-brow, here's some knee-slapping, rib-tickling fun that you can really sink your teeth into. Try your hand at getting a leg up on some head-to-toe body language. I'm not speaking tongue-in-cheek when I say that, as a rule of thumb, all answers pertain to parts of the body and should be recognizable, inoffensive words.
The Logological Millionaires, Peter Newby
The Logological Millionaires, Peter Newby
Word Ways
Logology has intrigued many writers. George Bernard Shaw, for example, gave us the word GHOTI. Pronounced 'fish', it is a compound of the GH of ENOUGH as the 'f', the O of WOMEN for the 'i' and the TI of EMOTION for the 'sh'. But, few writers have made a fortune from a single piece of wordplay. The exception is a trio--Michael Bagent. Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln--who turned one piece of wordplay into the best-seller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
Purple People Eater Words, Oren N. Dalton
Purple People Eater Words, Oren N. Dalton
Word Ways
Peter Newby's November 1995 Word Ways article "The Anglo-American Hyphen" arrived in the same mail until the 2 Dec 1995 issue of Science News. In the Biology column of the latter (page 178), this headline appeared: A TREATMENT PLANT-FISH HATCHERY IN ONE -- reminiscent, perhaps, of a medical facility for plant-fish. But since Providence has provided two symbols to clarify such ambiguities, the following is better: A TREATMENT-PLANT/FISH-HATCHERY IN ONE. With loyal fealty, the article followed the style of its title. It began with a 21 year-word/single-sentence paragraph, almost half of which was a 10-word name: East Chicago Sanitary District …
Books A-List Alist, Jan Anderson
Books A-List Alist, Jan Anderson
Word Ways
Below are listed the scrambled titles of 11 current and known non-fiction and 6 fiction books. The scramble refers (perhaps obliquely) to the book's content, as does the "review" (using the same letters) that follows. The scrambled author's name puns on something about him/her or the book. Listings are in alphabetical order by the "real" book titles.
Which Way To The Square, Richard Sabey
Which Way To The Square, Richard Sabey
Word Ways
Which is the best way for a computer program to search for regular word squares, top-down or bottom-up? This article records some statistics produced during computer searches for regular 8-squares in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. I look forward to similar statistics for 9-squares from those square-hunters whose 9-letter word stocks are more fully developed than my own.
Twenty Consonant Poetry, William Gillespie
Twenty Consonant Poetry, William Gillespie
Word Ways
Twenty Consonant Poetry was developed by skilled poetic researchers working in Urbans, Illinois in 1993. The idea grew out of a joke about twelve-ton music. It was originally used as a learning aid to invoke visions in high school poetry students. Since then, people of widely varying sensibilities have attempted it. It has been used to write stories, scripts, stock reports, limericks, lists of things to do, matrices, songs, political commentary, and cartoons. Unbeknownst to us (at least for awhile). Twenty Consonant Poetry even had its own web page.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 29 Issue 2
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 29 Issue 2
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Modular Ladders, Leonard Gordon, A. Ross Eckler
Modular Ladders, Leonard Gordon, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Most Word Ways readers are familiar with word ladders in which one changes letters one at a time, as CART-CARE-CORE-BORE-BONE. Such ladders can be embedded in word networks, first discussed in the May and August 1973 issues of Word Ways. In particular, one can define the distance between two words in a network as the number of steps in the minimum-length ladder joining these words, and the span of the network as the maximum distance taken over all possible pairs of words in the network.
Of Kangaroos And Joeys, Richard Lederer
Of Kangaroos And Joeys, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
Being a marsupial, a mother kangaroo carries her young in her pouch. Kangaroo words do the same thing: within their letters they conceal a smaller word that means the same as the fully grown word. The smaller synonym I call a joey, the name of a kangaroo's offspring. The joey must appear in order. Buried inside a CATACOMB in the joey TOMB. A PLAGIARIST is a kind of LIAR. Now watch your mind BLOSSOM and, therefore, BLOOM.
Colloquy
Word Ways
The editor has arranged for The Book Shop, 83 South St. Morristown NJ 07960 to accept overseas orders for Making the Alphabet Dance. To send a book surface mail to Great Britain (or, by extension, western Europe) send the bookstore $27.70; for air mail, the total cost is $36.45. Major credit cards are also accepted (telephone 201-539-2165).
The Commonest 6-Square, M. Douglas Mcilroy
The Commonest 6-Square, M. Douglas Mcilroy
Word Ways
Behold, now OCCURS a find long lost in the CLOSET, blurted out almost like COMEDY--sweat! Our speedy, USEFUL tools that e marvelously REDUCE work alter logological STYLES and vision.
On Beyond Zillion, Nyr Indictor
On Beyond Zillion, Nyr Indictor
Word Ways
When Buddha undertook to court Princess Gopa, legend has it, her father had him compete with five other suitors in an array of physical and mental competitions. At one point Buddha's mental prowess was to be tested by the mathematician Arjuna. Arjuna asked him to name all the numbers above koti, the Sanskrit word for 10^7.
A Soup Can Can Can-Can; Can You?, A. Ross Eckler
A Soup Can Can Can-Can; Can You?, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In December 1995, puzzlemeister Will Shortz of Weekend Edition on National Public Radio issued the following challenge to listeners: write a grammatically-correct and readily-understandable statement that contains the same word four or more times in a row, as "That Texan can't drill a well well. Well, well drilling isn't easy." Over 800 replies were received, including such old chestnuts as "John, where James had had 'had', had had 'had had'.
Sematrimagic Squares Of Order 3, Lee Sallows
Sematrimagic Squares Of Order 3, Lee Sallows
Word Ways
Sematria is the name I suggested for a new kind of gematria introduced and discussed at length in "Base 27: The Key to a New Gematria" in the May 1993 Word Ways. In sematria a string of letters is interpreted as a unique integer written in a base 27 notion that uses A=1, B=2, etc. along with an extra symbol, say "_", for zero.
The Life Of Riley, Walter Fretlaw
The Life Of Riley, Walter Fretlaw
Word Ways
England's palindromic town of New Bybwen is one of the greatest tourist attractions for wordsmiths, logologists, recreational linguists and lay fellows of the Order of Saint Aldhelm. Most visitors eventually wind up at the town's celebrated watering hold, the Drab & Bard, hoping to catch the eye of its prettiest serving wench, Elsie Isle. One such visitor was a Bostonian of Irish extraction known only by his surname of Riley. To be accepted by the natives one has to feature in some form of palindrome and the following anecdotes concern Riley's New Bybwenization.
Photon What?, Dan Tilque
Photon What?, Dan Tilque
Word Ways
I recently started a new job at Photo Kinetics, a company that makes test instruments for fiber optic cable. Posted in the office is a collection of the various ways that the company name has been spelled in correspondence. These range from simple typos to highly imaginative spellings. Some of the more interesting spellings are:
Kickshaws, David Morice
A Symmetric Bestiary, Leonard Gordon
A Symmetric Bestiary, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
In February 1995, "A Word Graph Bestiary" presented all possible graph shapes for words having five different letters. On the next three pages, I exhibit a sample of symmetrical "beasts" corresponding to words of six to nine different letters: fat man, thin man, ape man, crab, girl jumping rope, etc.
Mad Adam?, John E. Connett
Mad Adam?, John E. Connett
Word Ways
When Adam first met Eve in Eden, he politely introduced himself: Madam. I'm Adam. (Eve should have been named Iris so that she could have replied: Sir, I'm Iris.) Had Adam been more loquacious,k he could have used any of the following palindromic introduction -- although some might have led Eve to doubt his sexual orientation and his sanity!
Telephone Words, Rex Gooch
Telephone Words, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
Problem 1642, "Telephone Synonyms", in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics 21:2, pp. 156-8, 1989, concerned the relationship between words and US telephone numbers. The letters Q and Z are omitted, then the digits 2 to 9 are assigned respectively to ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, PRS, TUV and WXY. Thus DOG is dialled as 364.
Variations On A Palindromic Theme, Howard Richler
Variations On A Palindromic Theme, Howard Richler
Word Ways
In a May 1991 Word Ways article entitled "Palindromic Construction", I explained how many palindromic sentences have inner structures that allow for substituting other words to form new palindromes. For example, in the well-known palindrome ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA, the palindrome is composed of an inner palindrome WAS I ERE I SAW and the words ABLE and ELBA which spell each other when reversed. Thus any word pairs which spell each other backwards will keep the palindrome in order. Two puerile examples that fulfill this criterion are ANAL WAS I ERE I SAW LANA and A SLUT …