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Articles 2731 - 2760 of 4911
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A La Merci Des Bad Farceurs, Paul Maxim
A La Merci Des Bad Farceurs, Paul Maxim
Word Ways
Editor's Note: THis is a promised sequel to "The Mallarme Cryptopuzzles" published in the August 1993 Word Ways.
The Alphabet And The Golden Ratio, Monte J. Zerger
The Alphabet And The Golden Ratio, Monte J. Zerger
Word Ways
Place the letters of the English alphabet (capitals) in a row and count five letters inward from either end. You will arrive at letters which are quite similar to their neighbors (on their inside), E to F and V to U. There is one other adjacent pair of letters resembling each other -- M and N. Because M and N mark the center of the alphabet, the three couples EF-MN-UV induce a natural pairing of the entire alphabet.
Word-Search Packing, A. Ross Eckler
Word-Search Packing, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Given a list of words, what is the minimum-area rectangle they can be packed into, using word-search rules for placement? Any word can read forward or backward, up or down, or in any of the four diagonal directions, but must be in a straight line.
Cheater's Palindromes: Part 3, Walter Fretlaw
Cheater's Palindromes: Part 3, Walter Fretlaw
Word Ways
Darryl Francis is the third of the four compilers of Cheater's palindromes which were originally featured in the November 1990 Kickshaws. As he is a Scrabble fanatic, many of his constructions are concerned with his adjudication of words played in games between the Greek god Janus and Jeff Grant.
A Myth About The Bard, J. Karl Franson
A Myth About The Bard, J. Karl Franson
Word Ways
"Hidden Bard" by Richard Lederer in the May 1994 Word Ways perpetuates what is almost certainly a myth, the Shakespeare assisted in the translation of the King James Bible (KJV) and encoded his name in the text. Mr. Lederer correctly points out an astonishing fact, known for many years, that in Psalm 46, the 46th words from beginning and ending, respectively, are shake and speare (if the final word Selah is omitted).
The Myseterious Advertisement, Ted Clarke
The Myseterious Advertisement, Ted Clarke
Word Ways
We are all amused by the results of foreign countries; efforts at translating their brochures and operating instructions into English. We should, however, give credit to them for at least trying. Would we, for example, do any better than the following letter, were we to try to translate our message into a foreign language.
The Game Of The Name, Nurse Pathos
The Game Of The Name, Nurse Pathos
Word Ways
When it comes to anagramming names, my own provides an embarrassment of riches and I sympathize with those whose names are stubborn in this respect. Few Word Ways' contributors have had their names anagrammed over the years, mainly because they are not suitable anagram material, but that is not always the case.
The Morristown Fables: Part 2, Peter Newby
The Morristown Fables: Part 2, Peter Newby
Word Ways
When Ross Begorrah's cuckoo clock developed laryngitis, he asked Mary, his shepherdess friend, to recommend an equally reliable replacement timekeeper. May was feeling drowsy from taking stock of her charges - she kept counting her pet lamb over and over again - so she did not pay Ross the full attention of her new bonnet, she mumbled a garbled reply to Ross's question. "Roe, dial and red," was what she actually said, but it was on the basis of this that Begorrah purchased an originally dumb bird.
New Palindromes, Jeff Grant
New Palindromes, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
The Palindromicon contains over 2300 palindromic words and names drawn from a wide variety of sources. Since publication of this work, hundreds of additional 'dromes have been added to this collection, and the current total is now approaching the 3000 mark.
A Maximal Panning Tree, A. Ross Eckler
A Maximal Panning Tree, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The five-letter word network given below is partitioned into 27 subnetworks, each having a unique vowel-consonant pattern (Y in first position is deemed a consonant, otherwise a vowel). All words are in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary; each subnetwork lists the total OSPD words in it.
The Ontological Problem, Lee Sallows
The Ontological Problem, Lee Sallows
Word Ways
Paying a recent call on my old friend Professor Eischwein, Transylvania's former leading logologist, I discovered him busy at work in his laboratory. "How's tricks, Professor?" I asked noting as I did that he was using a Bunsen burner to melt chocolate letters into a glass flask that was perched on one side of late letters into a glass flask that was perched on one side of the chemical balance.
Color Transposals, Darryl Francis
Color Transposals, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
In the November 1988 Kickshaws, Benjamin Zimmer presented the following list of transposals (marked with an asterisk) and transadditions of the names of the seven colors of the spectrum.
The Mating Game, Susan Thorpe, Peter Newby
The Mating Game, Susan Thorpe, Peter Newby
Word Ways
Shakespeare and Bowdler, Boswell and Johnson - the world has been holding its breath for the next great literary teaming, and here it is... Thorpe and Newby! To celebrate their association, they wish to pioneer in Word Ways a mild amusement, The Mating Game.
Coinicons: A New Word Game, Nyr Indictor
Coinicons: A New Word Game, Nyr Indictor
Word Ways
Here is a new word game that can be played by any number of people. To play the game, you must first learn these definitions. A coinicon is either a protoproot, and moreform, or an interreinevitive. A protoproot is a made-up word comprising a common prefix, followed by an anagram of that prefix.
A Card Trick Mnemonic Revisited, A. Ross Eckler
A Card Trick Mnemonic Revisited, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
In the November 1968 and the May 1977 Word Ways, I described the use of the word BIBLE ATLAS GOOSE THIGH as a mnemonic for performing a bit of card-reading "magic". Twenty playing cards are dealt face down in ten pairs and, while the magician's back is turned, the subject looks at and memorizes the cards of one pair. The twenty cards are then gathered into one pile, preserving the pairs, and dealt face up in a four-by-five array according to the mnemonic: the first two cards in the first and third positions of the first row (the two …
Wedded Words, Thomas L. Bernard
Wedded Words, Thomas L. Bernard
Word Ways
Just as the clergyman in the traditional wedding ceremony declares the happy couple to have become "man and wife", the following words seem to have become conjunctively and inextricably joined to each other.
The Last Mystery Of Lord Sunnday, Walter Shedlofsky
The Last Mystery Of Lord Sunnday, Walter Shedlofsky
Word Ways
Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Pilary King. I am your host for KMWA-TV's new series 'Odd Dramas'. Our odd drama tonight is the disappearance of mystery author Lord Sunnday. Two of the author's most popular tales were 'Purple Door Mystery' and 'Simulacrum's Mural Music'.
An Elegy, Howard W. Bergerson
An Elegy, Howard W. Bergerson
Word Ways
The following was written, with many tears, for the mothballed SSC (Superconducting Super Collider), in sorrow that the most powerful generation in all history would not bequeath and greater knowledge of the universe to posterity:
Kickshaws, David Morice
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 27 Issue 2
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 27 Issue 2
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.
Packing Words, Leonard Gordon
Packing Words, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
What is the minimum rectangular area in which one can pack precisely N words of length L? All must be joined in criss-cross fashion, and no words of other lengths are allowed. The main point is to find the packing patterns; finding real (and, if possible, common) words to fit those patterns adds interest, converting a purely mathematical problem to a logological one as well. The patterns derived here may be used in conventional crossword or other puzzles.
Incompatible Strings, Lee Sallows
Incompatible Strings, Lee Sallows
Word Ways
The following chessboard pattern is a template for the words ONE to NINE.
Shalom! Salaam!, Howard Richler
Shalom! Salaam!, Howard Richler
Word Ways
The following dialogue comes from a tape which records the clinching negotiation session between Palestinian and Israeli officials in Oslo, Norway. Strangely, all sentences are English palindromes; they read the same backwards as frontwards.
Fourwords, Anthony Sebastian, Renee Merriam
Fourwords, Anthony Sebastian, Renee Merriam
Word Ways
Of the thousands of patients with aphasia whom we have studied in our fifty combined years of neurological practice, one of the most interesting was a 44-year-old man, whom we refer to as Rufo, who, following a seemingly-minor blow to his head, developed a highly-specific expressive aphasia: he lost the ability to utter the word four. The logological implications of the case might interest the readers of Word Ways.
Two-Consonant Sentences, A. Ross Eckler
Two-Consonant Sentences, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
On Devember 19, 1993, puzzlermaster Will Shortz of the Weekend Edition on National Public Radio challenged his listeners to construct sentences using only two consonants, such as "Can Connie, a nice niece in Canaan, can-can on a canoe in uncanny innocence?" or "Suppose a pious pope possesses a spouse - oops!". He added "entries will be judged on wit, originality, elegance and naturalness of phrasing". Counting different consonant-choices by the same person as separate entries, nearly 200 poured in during the next two weeks. The most fecund entry was DN, with 39 different contestants represented, closely followed by ST with …
Hidden Bard, Richard Lederer
Hidden Bard, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
William Shakespeare, who both entered and exited the earthly stage on April 23, lurks in the most astonishing places - in the words he coined (laughable, majestic), his compounds (fancy free, foregone conclusion) and his expressions (there's the rub, vanish into thin air).