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Careless Feet, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A poem

Simon: The Genius In My Basement, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

This is the title of an unconventional biography of Simon Norton, occasional Word Ways contributor, written by Alexander Masters, a tenant in a rooming-house owned by Norton who lives in the basement.

Non-Standard Conjugations, Andy Liu

Word Ways

No abstract available

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Two Palindrome Recreations, Jim Puder

Word Ways

As anyone who has ever sincerely tried, yet failed ignominiously, to read all the way through someone else's long list of sentence palindromes has reason to know, the real fun in palindromes lies mainly in their making, not in their reading. Two of the more structured ways of enjoying palindrome composition involve the application of a systematic subject constraint to this already much constrained form. In one, one selects some limited set of related words, such as the names of the U.S. States or presidents, and attempts to use as many as possible in short palindromic passages. In the other, …

Accidental Ouroboros Word Worms In Running Text, Mike Keith

Word Ways

The word worm was introduced to readers of Word Ways by Ross Eckler in an article of the same name in the August 2003 issue (p.13). Word worms are based on the three-dimensional lattice of integer-valued points.

Centerpieces - 1, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

When the letters in each of the twenty words below are appropriately permuted, what results serve as centerpieces of new words which begin and end with the same letter. For example, rearranging the letters of RAINS into RANSI and flanking this centerpiece with a pair of "T"s produces TRANSIT.

A Magic Tour Of Europe, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

The map depicts a reasonably good picture of seven European countries and their connection by six numbered air routes. With the magician's back turned the subject starts in any country and begins his tour by calling out in sequence the numbers of his flights. When he completes his tour to his satisfaction he announces his ending country. The magician can immediately name his starting country and the direct route to return to it.

Worst Case? Cursed Waste! A Passel Of New Spoonerisms, Don Hauptman

Word Ways

A collection of puns.

Triangular Progressions, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

A word puzzle.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Authored by Craig Conley and published in 2005 by HarperCollins, this 232-page book claims that one thousand one-letter words exist. Since there are only 26 letters, this is mathematically impossible; Conley instead presents one thousand different meanings of one-letter words, often with literary citations.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

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

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Definitive Anagrams: M-O, . Anil

Word Ways

These anagrams, polyanagrams, palindromes and charades follow the constraints and conventions set out earlier in this series (03-01, 279; 04-274; 05-211).

Anagram Quiz 7, . Anil

Word Ways

A Quiz.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 45, Number 2

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Banananames, . Anil, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Words like LOGOLOGICAL, which alternate vowels and sonsonanats could use a succinct name. David Morice's The Dictionary of Word Play cites them only with reference to numbers, as "alternating vowel-consonant number name", a wordful description rather than a handy name. May we suggest "banananames", in the spirit of Agamemnon, Albuquerque and Miami words which are named after prime examples.

Party Smarty, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A Poem.

Gerunding, Ron Singer

Word Ways

A Poem

Typoclycemic Anaphoric Verse, Dave Drayton

Word Ways

Anaphoric verse - a term taken from the word 'Anaphora' - is poetry that involves the "repetition of a word at the beginning of successive utterances," Motte 2007 pp. 209. Inspired by the power that such technique lends to a text, each repetition potentially a reiteration, I sought to employ it with a further constraint that I believed would serve to even better illustrate the anophora's potential for stern, powerful imagery through accretion.

Hebrew Or Japanese?, Solomon W. Golomb

Word Ways

1. INTRODUCTION

It is quite common that, for any two languages, there will be words that look or sound alike, but with different meanings. French words that look like English words but with different meanings in the two languages are called faux amis ("false friends"). In some cases they are from unrelated roots (e.g. French pain means "bread" and rue means "street". In other cases, words that began the same evolved different meanings. From its Latin roots, concurrence basically means "running along side of", which in English came to mean "agreement", but in French it means "competition."

Some New Results On King- And Queen- Graphable Words, Mike Keith

Word Ways

A word (or phrase, sentence, etc.) is said to be king-graphable (KG) if each of its distinct letters can be placed on a square of an infinite chessboard such that the entire word or pharase can be spelled out by starting on the first letter and making only the moves of a chess king to get from letter to letter.

This Rugged World, Sir Jeremy Morse

Word Ways

A poem.

Crossword, Derrick Niederman

Word Ways

A crossword puzzle.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

More Martin Magic, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Martin is Martin Gardner of course and the magic is his "The 3-by-3 Matix" which first appeared in Scientific American (August, 1966) and is reprinted in his Martin Gardner Presents, 1993, Kaufman and Greenburg, p.149. Word Ways subscriber Max Maven has written a fine introduction to this book and has himself developed a new version of the effect.

Anagram Quiz 6, . Anil

Word Ways

No abstract available.

An Alice Puzzle, Oscar Thumpbindle

Word Ways

I have been sitting in on an honor's class about Lewis Carroll being taught this spring semester at my old college haunt Butler University in Indianapolis. Among the many new puzzles and games being introduced in the class I offer the following based on the ten different letters in "Alice in Wonderland". These ten are ALICE and DROWN, perhaps referring the the 2nd Wonderland chapter "A Pool of Tears" where Alice thought she might drown in her own tears.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.