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Articles 2941 - 2970 of 4911
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Yeltsin, Darryl Francis
Yeltsin, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Boris Yeltsin has achieved world prominence in the last year or so, especially because of the part he played in the events surrounding the Russian coup in August 1991 and his presidency of Russia.
The Moriarty Challenge, Angus G. James
The Moriarty Challenge, Angus G. James
Word Ways
"And what do you make of this, my dear fellow?" asked Holmes one morning after breakfast, as I stood in the bow window of our rooms staring out at the passing show in Baker Street. He handed me a single sheet of paper on which the following 78 different words were scrawled.
The Most Anagrammatic Capital?, Mary Lois Dennison
The Most Anagrammatic Capital?, Mary Lois Dennison
Word Ways
Caren is acting as a tour guide for Tomas, a visitor to a certain state capital. Its letters can be repeatedly rearranged to fill the blank spaces in the dialogue below with appropriate phrases. Can you complete their conversation? Answers are found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
I Felt, Y'Know Like Wow, Leonard R. N. Ashley
I Felt, Y'Know Like Wow, Leonard R. N. Ashley
Word Ways
With slang expressions galore, one need never be at a loss for words to say how one feels. Here are some more or less familiar expressions. In each case, what feeling are they used to covey? Answers can be found in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
Collinear Words, Leonard Gordon
Collinear Words, Leonard Gordon
Word Ways
In the February 1992 Word Ways, Christopher McManus introduced the concept of halfway words: trios of words where every letter in the middle word is midway in the alphabet between the corresponding letters in the end words (for example, AGE-JIG-SKI, where J is halfway between E and I).
Eight-Squares In Webster's Second, Eric Albert
Eight-Squares In Webster's Second, Eric Albert
Word Ways
Editor Note: The following set of eight-squares is the result of a computer search of the Air Force tape of Webster's Second Unabridged for eight-squares consisting solely of solid (unhyphenated) words, carried out by Eric Albert in 1989 and independently by Chris Long in 1992.
The Name's The Game, Christopher Mcmanus
The Name's The Game, Christopher Mcmanus
Word Ways
An earlier set of solitaire puzzles based on word charades appeared as "Musical Wordboxes" in the August 1990 Word Ways. The Present article is a sequel with a new theme. The aim of each puzzle below is to arrange the boxes into a square or rectangle in such a way that every horizontal and vertical join forms a common English word. In Figure 1, for example, one vertical join already forms the word LAUGH, and a horizontal join forms ORE.
A Few Tricky Limericks, Douglas Greenwood
A Few Tricky Limericks, Douglas Greenwood
Word Ways
It's been more than a decade since Maxey Brooke surveyed the various ways in which the limerick has been gimmicked (see "Limerick-Gimerick", February 1980). It's time to revisit this specialized niche of wordplay.
Kickshaws, David Morice
Onomatopoeia: The Daily Grind, A. Ross Eckler
Onomatopoeia: The Daily Grind, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
This is the second of two articles on the onomatopoeia of words for sounds produced by inanimate objects; the first article appeared in the May 1991 Word Ways. In that article, a taxonomy was developed relating the pitch and loudness of a sound to the vowel of the word representing it, and the duration to the initial and final consonants (or consonant clusters). The article restricted itself to sounds associated with accidental bumps, bangs or falls of solid objects (both human and inanimate), including the deliberate collisions of war and sport, and the related sounds of friction and breakage.
The Palindromic Dead Sea Scrolls, Howard Richler
The Palindromic Dead Sea Scrolls, Howard Richler
Word Ways
Many Biblical scholars are expecting a bombshell with the recent release of previously-unpublished documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They will not be disappointed in discovering that there another document which traces the history of the Bible in palindromic form. Not only in this document written palindromically, but it is written in "English" palindromes.
A New Transposal Of Texas, Darryl Francis
A New Transposal Of Texas, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Previous issues of Word Ways have presented transposals of the 50 US statenames, ranging from the legitimate (MINNESOTA to NOMINATES) to the fabricated (NEW MEXICO to X ICEWOMEN).
A Palindromic Trilogy, Brian A. Lenertz
A Palindromic Trilogy, Brian A. Lenertz
Word Ways
Although I have written poetry for many years, it was not until 1984 that I learned of Howard Bergerson's book "Palindromes and Anagrams," stimulating a latent interest in palindromes. (I had long marveled at "Doc, note, I dissent...".) After writing some very odd one-liners, I set out to write an extended palindromic poem.
Shakespeare's First And Last Words, Angus G. James
Double Word Squares, Jeff Grant
Double Word Squares, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
Regular word squares have the same terms across and down, whereas double word squares have different ones. Examples of both types at the relatively simple four-letter level are shown below.
Chinese Stepladders, Leonard J. Gordon
Chinese Stepladders, Leonard J. Gordon
Word Ways
Word Ways readers are familiar with Lewis Carroll's word ladders. As a variation, Dave Morice suggested in the August 1989 Kicksaws a game which he called Stepladders. Two words join only if the letters which are exchanged are adjacent to each other in the alphabet.
Acknowledging The Corn, Peter Newby
Acknowledging The Corn, Peter Newby
Word Ways
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer was born in England on May 2, 1810. He was graduated from Cambridge University with first class hours in 1836. Within five years, Dr. Brewer's first book, "A Guide to Science," was published, and by 1905 it had gone through 47 editions and sold 319,000 copies in England alone.
The Linguistic Genetic Message, Anthony Sebastian
The Linguistic Genetic Message, Anthony Sebastian
Word Ways
In his "Essay on Man," Alexander Pope exhorted, "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; / The proper study of Mankind is Man. / ...The glory, jest, and riddle of the world." To know ourselves is to know the information in the seed from which we sprouted -- we are at least in part the chemical expression of the message encoded by our genes. I suggest that there is encoded in our genes also a linguistic message, a message which semantic content, and that Man is now in a position to decipher it.
Some Capital States?, Faith Eckler
Some Capital States?, Faith Eckler
Word Ways
With the hope of improving the quality of their lives, many folks are turning to published listings of the most desirable states in which to live. These guides use many indicators to rate locations, such as job opportunities, incidence of crime, climate, recreational facilities and access to medical care.
Funny Plurals, Chris Cole
Funny Plurals, Chris Cole
Word Ways
"Humor" has been defined as the sudden occurrence of the unexpected. A funny (humorous) plural, it follows by logologic, is a plural that ends with an unexpected letter. Since most plurals in English are formed by adding an S to the singular, plurals that end with other letters are funny (strange).
Kickshaws, David Morice
He's A Dirty Bird, Mary Stewart Craig
He's A Dirty Bird, Mary Stewart Craig
Word Ways
Editor's Note: Can you find the 83 birds concealed in this story? Answers can be found in Answers and Solutions.
Mississauga, Canada's Oddest City, Howard Richler
Mississauga, Canada's Oddest City, Howard Richler
Word Ways
The numerical positions of all the vowels in the alphabet are odd numbers. Designating their placement by number, we get A=1, E=5, I=9, O=15, U=21 and Y=25. Thus, only words that have no vowels, like NTH (14-20-8) can be written with letters whose numeric alphabetic position is strictly even.
Spanagrams, Lee Sallows
Spanagrams, Lee Sallows
Word Ways
In "The New Merology" (Word Ways, February 1990) I discussed how distinct integers could be assigned to letters so as to produce "perfect" English number words whos gematric value is then equal to the number named.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 25 Number 1
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 25 Number 1
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.