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Articles 931 - 960 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Celebration Of Mind, Scott Hudson, Tom Rodgers
Celebration Of Mind, Scott Hudson, Tom Rodgers
Word Ways
Information about the second Martin Gardner Celebration of Mind.
Stinky Pinkies: Variations, A. Ross Eckler
Stinky Pinkies: Variations, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
The standard stinky pinky is a two-word rhyming phrase such as FLOWER POWER or HAIRY LARRY. Common variations are achieved by inserting words such as THE or 'N' (as in SLICE IT 'n' ICE IT, to skin and freeze an animal, or CATCH the SCRATCH, to contract a case of poison ivy). Buzzwords (Crown Publishers, 1993) has a variety of unusual variations; a type-collection is given below.
Pieces Of Centaurs, Mike Keith
Pieces Of Centaurs, Mike Keith
Word Ways
The poem below is a sequel to "Octopi" (WW, Feb. 2009, p. 43) and obeys a similar lexical constraint to its predecessor. There is a hint regarding the constraint hidden in each stanza. What is the constraint, can you find the eight hints?
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 44 Number 3
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 44 Number 3
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue, including a table of contents.
Fortunate Reversals, Richard Lederer
Fortunate Reversals, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
We intrepid logologists love to switch around letters within words -- adjacent letters (UNITED UNTIED), separated letters (CONVERSATION CONSERVATION), and initial and terminal letters (LATCHES SATCHEL). In some words we can interchange each half to form new words. Dmitri Borgmann called these leapfrogging specimens "cyclic transpositions." I prefer the more playful "fortunate reversals."
Close Call, Louis Phillips
Funny Words 3, A. Anil
Funny Words 3, A. Anil
Word Ways
Funny haha arguably, funny peculiar inarguably. No legit dictionary would touch these newords. So why create them? James Mancuso (eg, 11-124) mostly coins realistic neologisms, like Barbara Wallraff's Word Fugutives, as possible real words. My motive is more frivolous -- an urge to play logodaedaly just for fun, cavalierly ignoring my vast ignorance of existing words. There are some one million non-proper English words, give or take a million. Of course this spread allows the possibility (a million minus a million) that there are no legitimate English words, bastards every one! I leap on that leveled playing field scenario …
Scrabble And Retrograde Analysis, Simon Norton
Scrabble And Retrograde Analysis, Simon Norton
Word Ways
Reading Mike Keith's article "Scrabble-Tile Double Word Squares and Rectangles" (WW Feb 2011) led me to ask the following question: which of the word grids he gave are actually legal positions in a game of Scrabble? Chess problemists use the term "retrograde analysis" for the study of how chess positions might have arisen in a legal game; this concept is of course equally applicable to other games, including Scrabble.
Special Numerical Tautonymic Charades, Susan Thorpe
Special Numerical Tautonymic Charades, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
In Numerical Charades Part 4 (Word Ways Feb. 2011 p. 34), I offered a new type of numerical tautonym, specifically the numerical tautonymic charade.
Iambic Double Vowel Shift Cascades, A. Anil
Iambic Double Vowel Shift Cascades, A. Anil
Word Ways
VOWEL (SHIFT) CASCADES (02-53,192) are sentential or meaningful WORD LADDERS that run thru the vowels in one spot, eg, Bad bed bid bod bud. (Bedbugs, VD or pregnancy?) Vowel cascades can also be PHONIC: Bait beat: "Bite!" bought boot (The Shoe of the Fisherman). Susan Thorpe (11-155) calls meaningless examples of PHONETIC VOWEL ROTATIONS, although rotator has a prior wordplay meaning as a non-mirror word inversion like up/dn (see up/dn). She gives many good non-sentential examples with long vowel sounds but ignores short vowels.
The Cult Of Word Fasting, Dave Morice
The Cult Of Word Fasting, Dave Morice
Word Ways
This short story replaces the "Kickshaws" feature for this issue.
One-Pointers, Steve Kahan
One-Pointers, Steve Kahan
Word Ways
The following quiz solicits a grand total of one hundred answers, supplying the rationale for its title. While all of the categories are familiar, some of the answers might prove to be elusive. How close can you come to achieving a perfect score?
Collector's Corner, Round 3, Jeremiah Farrell
Collector's Corner, Round 3, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
In his book The No-Sided Professor Martin Gardner reprints "The Three Cowboys", a story for children from January 1959 Humpty Dumpty's Magazine.
Collector's Corner, Round 5, Jeremiah Farrell
Collector's Corner, Round 5, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
Martin Gardner's 300th article for Scientific American appeared in their August, 1998 issue (Cover: New Thinking about Back Pain). It's title "A Quarter-Century of Recreational Mathematics," highlights Gardner's 297 "Mathematical Games" columns and his 1956 article on "Hexaflexagons" (he does not mention the 1952 article on "Logic -- see Collector's Corner -- Round 4).
Collector's Corner, Round 6, Jeremiah Farrell
Collector's Corner, Round 6, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
Martin Gardner wrote 111 puzzles for his good friend Isaac Asimov to include in Isaac's Science Fiction magazine. The popular Sci-fi paperback is still being published. For details contact the editor Sheila Williams.
Letter Banks, Zorn Radisavljevic
Letter Banks, Zorn Radisavljevic
Word Ways
A letter bank is a type of puzzle where all the letters of one word (the "bank") can be used as many times as desired (a minimum of once each) to make a new word or phrase. For example, IMPS is a bank of MISSISSIPPI, and CYNDI LAUPER is a letter bank of PERPENDICULARLY.
National Puzzler's League, Zorn Radisavljevic
National Puzzler's League, Zorn Radisavljevic
Word Ways
You probably noticed that some authors of anagrams use pseudonyms. Most of them are members of the National Puzzlers League (NPL), an Americna non-profit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, NPL is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world. it originally hosted semiannual conventions in February and September of each year, but conventions are now held annually, in July.
Numerograms - Another Hidden Meanings In Letters, Zoran Radisavljevic
Numerograms - Another Hidden Meanings In Letters, Zoran Radisavljevic
Word Ways
Numerogram is a puzzle which I invented in 2001. It was firstly published in Belgrade magazine "Enigmatika".
The Language Perfectionist: Quotation Quota, Don Hauptman
The Language Perfectionist: Quotation Quota, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
Every few years, my friend Mardy Grothe assembles a new collection of quotations. The defining characteristic of these anthologies is that all the entries share an interesting or quirky theme.
A Pangrammatic Limerick, A. Ross Eckler
Anagram Quiz 3, A. Anil
Anagram Quiz 3, A. Anil
Word Ways
The clues are definitive anagrams or polyanagrams of the answers. Most are reversibles. Answers are out back.
Phonetic Palindromes, Susan Thorpe
Phonetic Palindromes, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
Words which are palindromes may, or may not, sound like palindromes. NOON, PEEP, and KINNIKINNIK sound like palindromes. However, most palindromes with more than 4 letters do not sound like palindromes, an exception being the 5 letter MINIM. The palindromically-inconsistent sounds, sometimes subtle, are, nevertheless, real: MADAM, LEVEL, TENET, CIVIC, SOLOS, DEIFIED, and ROTATOR. On the other hand, there exist words which are not palindromes but which sound like palindromes. These are phonetic palindromes. MAIM is a phonetic palindrome.
Hydromorons, A. Anil
Hydromorons, A. Anil
Word Ways
Hydromorons complement oxymorons. (H and O are two extremes on the chemical reactivity or redox scale.) In contrast to the glaring self-contradiction of an oxymoron, a hydromoron is a glaring redundancy like each of the three pairs in this telling headline.
Punk Whiz 15, A. Anil
Punk Whiz 15, A. Anil
Word Ways
More Pun Quiz misdefinitions. In parenthesis are the letters in the answer; (3|6) is a charade, a nine-letter word that splits into a three plus six letter pun. My answers are out back.
Us County Names, Darryl Francis
Us County Names, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
Over the years, I have written various articles for Word Ways on the logology of the names of the 50 US states and the 50 state capitals. There have been transposals, transdeletions, transadditions and so on. But I've never explored the names of the US counties.
Josephus Words, Dana Richards
Josephus Words, Dana Richards
Word Ways
In the articles on "Magic Spells" (Word Ways, Feb and May 2010) it was proposed that tricks could be performed with a deck of n letter cards. The deck would be prearranged, spelling some word u. There would be a "skip sequence" of integers k1, k2, ..., kn; the more natural the sequence the better.
"Hey -- Stumble? Stay Humble!": More Story Spoonerisms, Don Hauptman
"Hey -- Stumble? Stay Humble!": More Story Spoonerisms, Don Hauptman
Word Ways
One of my favorite varieties of spoonerism is the narrative form, in which a setup is followed by a punned punch line.
Gwan Tong, Amy Chi
Gwan Tong, Amy Chi
Word Ways
These two Chinese characters literally mean boiling soup. To local people, this type of soup is different from louh fo tong in terms of nutrition, medicinal value and the heart that the cook puts into making it.