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A Chantant Ant Anthology, Roger E. Rondeau

Word Ways

Of the trillions of insects that crawl over this earth, the lowly ants are the most ubiquitous, conspicuous, and universally recognized. They have also been in the news lately. A Harvard professor recently won a Pulitzer prize for his book about ants and their societal behavior. Not long ago, a Science magazine article revealed that a species of leaf-cutter ants has been gardening fungi for 23 million years. So they're not only everywhere, they've been there forever.

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.

Nationali-Tease, Stephen Sniderman

Word Ways

The words we use to refer to people from various countries do not always follow a predictable pattern. Thus, someone from Switzerland is Swiss, from Wales Welsh, and from Holland Dutch. Each sentence below contains the name of a country and an adjective describing the nationality of the country's inhabitants. Letters that are identical in both words have been omitted. In each case the answer is unique.

An American Army --, Edward Wolpow

Word Ways

The times seem to call for an updating of the well-known acrostical war-horse "The Siege of Belgrade". I have kept the lines as in the original -- omitting J, and ending with a second A.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 29 Issue 1

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Making The Alphabet Dance, David Morice

Word Ways

This is the book that puts it all together--the logological advances in letterplay that have been accumulating for the past 30 years. Since most of these discoveries appeared first in Word Ways, what better person to attempt the complex task of assembling the puzzle than editor Ross Eckler, who has edited the mag since 1970? Ross's new book, just published by St. Matin's Press, presents the material in eight chapters (83 selections) progressing from simple to more complex forms and containing dozens of illustrations, tables and lists interspersed throughout the text. At times, it works like a chess manual …

Retro-Active Words, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Have you noticed that a number of simple nouns have recently acquired new adjectives?

Splendid Symbolism, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

1 Mr. Bos of Eindhoven read the title-word in Vestdijk's Else Bohler and has extracted the prachtsymboliek [splendid symbolism] form it: in this word there appears no single letter more than once! That applies also to words such as dampkringslucht [atmospheric air] and gymnastiekvrouw [lady gymnast], but it is not easy to discover long words with this unique property.

Drow Rot Or Word?, Peter Newby

Word Ways

In the classic tradition of the famous SATOR word square. I present at the left one example of what may be considered a definitive English-language reversal square -- if you accept my argument. All the words used are perfectly valid:

The Panamanian Rejects, John E. Connett

Word Ways

It is not well-known that the noted palindromist Leigh Mercer made a number of false starts before creating the immortal A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL--PANAMA! Fortunately, his charlady, aware of Mercer's fame, made a practice of saving his wastebasket scraps. These, found among her effects after her death, were recently auctioned off by Sotheby's for a handsome sum, and can now be revealed to the world of logology.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Mallarme's Cigar-Sonnet: Part 1, Paul Maxim

Word Ways

Toute l'ame resumee

Quand lente nous l'expirons

Dans plusieurs ronds de fumee

Abolis en autres ronds

He Hates Smith, David Morice

Word Ways

Jeremy Smith, a graduate student in anthropology, doesn't like his last name. One afternoon at Donutland, where he works, he started telling me about the problems his name has given him. This transcript contains mostly quotes from Jeremy, with my words appearing in italics.

I'Ve Broken My Word, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

This is a special kind of search-a-word puzzle. It may be new. Words are built from frags instead of single letters. Each word consists of two but mainly three frags in a line. Read in an orthogonal or diagonal direction; for example, VERY DELI is read as DELIVERY. Note USE TEN HYPO (HYPOTENUSE) on a diagonal in the upper left.

Zzyzx, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In an article in the February 1974 Word Ways, Dmitri Borgmann nominated Zzyzx Springs as the alphabetically-last United States place name. THis name apparently is in no gazetteer (even the comprehensive Ran McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide); he cites as his source an undated map published by the Automobile Club of Southern California, covering San Bernardino County. He characterized it as

Phobias From A To Z, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Most of us are probably aware that someone with a morbid fear of strangers or foreigners is suffering from XENOPHOBIA. Similarly, a person with an abnormal aversion to closed spaces is the victim of CLAUSTROPHOBIA, while others who dread large open areas are displaying AGORAPHOBIA. Many people have an exaggerated fear of spiders, but would probably not know the name of this if it were not for the movie ARACHNOPHOBIA.

Whimsical German Surnames, Frederick Crane

Word Ways

All European languages, probably, have some family names that are a bit comical in effect. Some examples:

Shiftgrams: My Deft Ruse, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

A simple letter-shift is the change of one word into another word by shifting each of its letters n steps along the alphabet. Thus, shifted three steps, the letters COLD appropriately make FROG. Similarly, but with the alphabet arranged in a circle (A following Z), it takes just nine steps to persuade the exhausted rabbit to SLEEP, BUNNY.

Advice-Versa, Stephen Sniderman

Word Ways

Much of what passes for advice is, on examination, self-contradictory, "Never give anyone advice," "Don't listen to what others tell you," "God-damn all profanity," and "Avoid iambic meter, son" are examples. In the quiz below, thirty bits of paradoxical linguistic "advice" have been split into two parts, the first in the left-hand column and the second in the right-hand one. Can you re-combine each half with its illogical mate? Answers are found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

More Transposable Names, David S. Robinson

Word Ways

In the November 1995 Word Ways, the editor listed 26 different names such as EDNA DEAN or GARY GRAY. I have found 27 more, listed below.

Barnyard Charades, Christopher Mcmanus

Word Ways

Farmers are artists whose canvas is the land. They combine natural elements such as seeds, dirt, rain and sun to create copious new forms. Analogously, many farm-related words can be combined in word charades, to create a bumper crop of new word forms. Examples include EGG + PLANT, BULL + ION, STY + MY AND MOO+RING.

It's Greek To Me, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

The Greek grammarians and rhetoricians saddled subsequent cultures in the West with awkward and somewhat ugly terms for the discussions of speaking and writing. Take Paradiorthosis, as when we allude to a quotation that does not need to be identified but is given a new twist.

Queen's-Move Graphing, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In chess, the queen is the most versatile piece, moving in any of eight directions; unlike the king, which is constrained to move only one square at a time, she can move in a straight line until another piece is encountered. Translated to logology, this means that any word whose separate letters can be placed on chessboard squares so that it can be spelled out by a king, will also be spelled out by a queen. Furthermore, there will exist some words that can only be spelled out by queen's moves.

An Existential Alphabet, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

This quiz was inspired by Scot Morris of Omni magazine, who is always looking for odd alphabets. The following sequence of words and phrases lacks an entry for X. Why? Can you identify the principle that links all of these terms? Answers are in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

Licensed Confusion, Mike Morton

Word Ways

Some politicians have proposed that prisoners need to have jobs and improve their literacy skills. In a pilot project, prisoners went back to their traditional job of making license plates. To meet the educational goals of the program, prisoners had to look up the capital city of each of the fifty U.S. states and five territories, and make plates with the capital's name instead of the usual slogan. For instance, they were supposed to replace ALOHA STATE with HONOLULU, HAWAII.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

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

Barbara's Fart Creates A Fracas, Jill Rosenthal, Tony Saletan

Word Ways

We read address, swerved, veered car at West Exeter Street; we were at Barbara's fete, as were Vera, Bert, Bart, Dave, Fred, Sara, Steve. Actress Barbara, a faded stage star, fretted re: fat, crafted decreased-stew, beer bread, watercress, grated feta, brew, sweet dessert served were fat-free.