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Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

How Likely Are Duplicate Anagrams, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

If different people attempt to form anagrams of the same phrase, how likely are they to come up with the same one? (By "same" I mean the same set of words, perhaps arranged in a different order.) Some light is shed on this question by a corpus of several thousand anagrams constructed in 1993 by Games magazine readers in the "Mixed Reviews" contest (for examples, see the Word Ways issues of November 1994, February 1995 and May 1995). Certain movie titles were anagrammed by as many as 30 different contestants.

Effects Of The Media On Parents And Teachers In Regard To Reading Aloud To Children, Darwin Spiller

McCabe Thesis Collection

Reading aloud to children has always been a part of classroom instruction, but it has been neglected in recent years because of time constraints in the classroom due to the requirement for accountability, competency testing, and other demands on time. The media, however, point out that reading aloud to children as young as one year of age will increase vocabulary, improve listening skills, and enhance ability to comprehend. It would appear that many parents and teachers hear the message but do not take this advice seriously.

The purpose of this study is to establish whether the media has influenced the …

The Anti-Life Family Conference Of The United Nations, Mercedes Arzu-Wilson

The Linacre Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Mu Newsletter, May 1, 1997, Office Of University Relations

MU NewsLetter, 1987-1999

No abstract provided.

Using Portfolios To Develop L2 Cultural Knowledge And Awareness Of Students In Intermediate Spanish, Lina Lee

Languages, Literatures & Cultures

In spite of many efforts and contributions from previous researchers, the need for a systematic and consistent approach to teaching culture is still unmet. This pilot study shows that the portfolio is a meaningful way to integrate language and culture in a structure that provides opportunities for students to learn about foreign culture while using other skills-reading, listening, writing and speaking. In addition, resources from the Internet, such as Gopher, World Wide Web, and Listservs have great potential for cultural learning out-side the classroom. Foreign language teachers should be encouraged to explore and experiment with portfolios in other content areas …

@Govst.Edu, 1997-05, Office Of Public Affairs

@govst.edu

Monthly newsletter published by Governors State University between 1996-2001.

Postliberal Approaches To The Theology Of Religions: Presentation, Assessment, And Critical Appropriation, Joel Okamoto

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

This study focuses on the third type—the postliberal approaches to the theology of religions. In undertaking this, I have two basic purposes. One is to examine these postliberal approaches. This examination will include a description and analysis of selected postliberal proposals concerning issues and concerns in the theology of religions. The second is to assess these proposals on key issues and appropriate certain insights from the postliberal approach for the purpose of developing a Lutheran theology of religions.

While few proposals in the theology of religions have been characterized as “postliberal," there are considerable differences among them. Therefore I shall …

Teacher Recognition Of Student Learning Styles, Michelle Wright

Theses & Honors Papers

The ability of teachers in a special education classroom utilizing individualized instruction to recognize students' learning preferences was investigated. Each student's learning style preference was determined by the administration and evaluation of a learning styles inventory. Teachers were asked to respond to a similiar inventory as they felt their students would respond. A Pearson r performed on the results indicated that a relatively strong relationship existed between the responses at the . 10 level of significance .

Macalester Today May 1997, Macalester College

Macalester Today

No abstract provided.

Information Outlook, May 1997, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 1997

Volume 1, Issue 5

Pl8 Speek, The Language Of Vanity Plates, John Brooks Tenney

Word Ways

In states and provinces of North America, the popularity of vanity license plates appears to be increasing by leaps and bounds. Any trip can be enlivened by the simple pastime of collecting vanity tags en route. (On a drive between Washington and Richmond, one can expect to turn up at least thirty vanity tags.)

Alphabetic Clusters, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

The challenge is to find 26 words, each using a separate letter of the alphabet as many times as possible.

Tiling By Computer, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

Making the Alphabet Dance describes on p 214 lettering the 20 vertices of a dodecahedron with 20 different letters so that the five letters surrounding each of the 12 faces can be anagrammed into a word.

Letter Frequencies And Word Lengths, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

In trying to find an explanation for a certain phenomenon, I decided to compare the frequencies of letters in a certain group of words with some norm. I was not too happy with available lists because of their small sample size, and also because it was difficult to see whether differences in rank between different lists were significant. Therefore I made my own. The table in the article is compiled from approximately 7 million letters in my large 'dictionary' (compared with, for example, the 10 thousand letters of running text, not dictionary words, of Helen Gaines in Cryptanalysis).

More Phallicdromes, Win Emmons

Word Ways

AN, I GAVE POPE VAGINA

Computer pioneer's mistress admits to a Roman romance

Alphabet Plus Alpha, Nyr Indictor

Word Ways

In Japanese, the English phrase "plus alpha" (pronounced purasu aruha) has come to mean "and then some". It is in this sense that the title is intended. Pursuing the concept that two alphabets are better than one, I created an alphabet of words to which the letter A may be added to form a new word.

Fledge Ledge Edge, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

Some readers supposed that the flying elf my mother Dode saw (February Fledge Ledge Edge) was the Deified New Bybwen Flex Elf. Not so. It was her own doppelganger, the Flee Elf, an unacknowledged projection of her Flesh Self. Everyone has one, though the flying ones (sadly, a fugue state) are harder to catch. When I did, mine was like a leprechaun; I had to trick these wordplays out of it by promising it a credit. So, it's name is... where did I put that piece of paper? Well, just so you know I didn't write these!

The Chemistry Of Placenames, Dan Tilque

Word Ways

When asked about the relationship between the chemical elements and placenames, those knowledgeable in etymology will point out the several elements that derive their names from those of cities or towns. Holmium is derived from Stockholm, Sweden; lutetium comes form Lutetia, the Roman name from Paris; berkelium from Berkeley, California; and strontium indirectly comes form Strontian, a village in Scotland. No less than four elements--erbium, ytterbium, and yttrium--are derived from Ytterby, a Swedish mining town.

Reversals Revisited, Christopher Mcmanus

Word Ways

Words embedded in unrelated words are a frequent source of word play. When the embedded word occurs in reverse order, the surprise factor is further increased. For example, a recent cryptic crossword included the punning clue "We sent up plant monster". The answer was WEREWOLF, i.e., WE followed by FLOWER reversed. Another answer in the same puzzle was DAIRYMAID. It's clue dissected the answer into AID preceded by the reversal of MYRIAD.

Codebreaker Grids, Peter Newby

Word Ways

Recently two British newspapers have launched the next generation of crosswords -- codebreaker grinds. Resembling a standard crossword in format, the only difference being each blank square has its own number from 1 to 26, there are virtually no clues but let me quote the Daily Mail's Codeword instructions to give you a flavour of the challenge.

6x6 Magic Word Squares, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

This article shows how to construct a 6x6 magic word square using the method described in my "Eulerian Magic Word Squares" (November, 1996). The method is based on starting with an Eulerian square, but since a 6x6 Eulerian square does not exist, I must modify the method to make it work. Figure 2 is a well-known magic square. Figure 3 is derived from it by converting to base 6. Let's convert it to words, first for ordinary gementria, then for wints.

Cyclic Difference Words, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

As discussed in "Word Arithmetic" in the November 1996 Word Ways, there are two ways to construct difference words. The first was examined in detail in "Absolute Difference Words" in February; the second is the subject of this article. Briefly, a cyclic difference word is formed form a source word such as VASE (22.1.19.5) by subtracting the ith number from the (i+1)st, if necessary adding 26 to the latter to make them different positive (5 = 27.22, 18 = 19-1 = 31-19, yielding the target word ERL).

Mary Had A Letter Lamb, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Perhaps the most famous of all children's poems is the eight liens of verse composed by Sarah Josepha Hale and published in 1830 in Poems of Our Children.

Murderous Wordplay, Peter Newby

Word Ways

The 1678 murder of Justice Godfrey is known as 'England's longest unsolved murder' despite the fact that three men were hanged, drawn and quartered for the crime. These dupes were--as Lee Harvey Oswald is alleged to be--the 'fall guys' for a powerful group of conspirators whose ultimate target was the head to state, the Stuart monarch.

More Words Newfound, Words Reobserved, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the February 1994 issue of Word Ways. I offered a collection of 26 words, one for each letter of the alphabet, which had caught my attention over the preceding months. Some of the words were new, most had been in existence for many years. But all of them had some special property worthy of note to logologists.

The Commonest Double Word Squares, M. Douglas Mcilroy

Word Ways

Draw a stock of n-letter words in decreasing order of frequency from Kucera and Francis's Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English until they yield a double word square. For n=2,3,4,5, word stocks of 15,66,326 and 1444 are needed, in good agreement with Chris Cole's theoretical predictions of 16, 63, 250 and 992 given in "Mathematics of Square Construction" in February 1993. The Kucera and Francis frequencies (in word per million) are given next to the words in each square.

The Boys Of Summer, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

See if you can hit a home run on this quiz. Play it to the bleechers! Baseball, the national game, has done much for the national language. Give the baseball-inspired slang for the following. Ready? Step up to the plate. Play ball!

Lame Duck Or Swan Song?, Robert C. Layton

Word Ways

The media has of late confused the status of reelected officials not eligible for an additional term, referring to them as "lame ducks". Governor George Allen of Virginia and President Clinton are prime examples. Although the animal term is inappropriate for their situation, both men will have to come to terms with the animal kingdom in their respective positions.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

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