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Colloquy

Word Ways

Comments on past articles.

Kickshaws, Dave Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

A Poem: Pop-Star, Jeremy Morse

Word Ways

A poem

Elemental Crossword, Mark J. P. Wolf

Word Ways

With a little bit of imagination, the Periodic Table of Elements can be seen as a rather strange and inelegant crossword puzzle, which is asymmetrical in form and contains such bizarre words like "RbSrYZrNbMoTcRuRhPd" and HLiNaKCuRbAgCaAuFr". After major readjustments, here is a crossword puzzle that solves some of those problems. Each square of the solution contains an element, which, when combined, completes a real word. Some elements are used more often than others, of course, and some are not used at all. One of the interesting things about this crossword is that it is not always clear from the boxes …

More Accidental Tautonyms, Jim Puder

Word Ways

Tautonyms - i.e., words, phrases, etc. whose spelling is tautological - are of two kinds: terms such as froufrou and Pago Pago, which were fashioned from two or more identical subunits, and terms such as hotshots and valval, which were not. In the first group, tautological spelling is automatic, while in the second group its occurrence is a matter of chance.

Punc Lib Charades, A Anil

Word Ways

Most charades involve respacing the letters, creating new words, as in therapist: the rapist. In contrast the following group do not change the words or spacing, only the punctuation. I call them Punc Lib charades. Like punk kids in the old sense, liberated puncs break out of their cages and run freely among the words wreaking havoc, totally altering if not reversing the meaning. The lowly comma in particular wreaks to high heaven.

Spelling Reform, Mark Setteducati

Word Ways

European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

A Poem: Magic Word, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

A poem.

Word Magic, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

These effects are excerpts from Gardner's forthcoming book on word play to be published by Sterling.

Anagram Calendar - Arranged Almanac, Dave Morice

Word Ways

Anagram Calendar - Arranged Almanac anagrams the names of the 366 dates, the 12 months, and the 7 weekdays. "Each date's anagram is printed in its own calendar square (January First = "Fans, I jury art)," and the weekday anagrams are printed across the top of the grid (Sunday = "Say Dun"). In non-leap years, the square for February 29th should be omitted. The 2010 calendar year starts on a Friday. Any other year can be represented by shifting the anagrams to their appropriate squares.

Punk Whiz 8, A Anil

Word Ways

A pun quiz of misdefinitions.

Spoonertoons 6: "With Phallus Amore Thought", Don Hauptman, Jim Siergey

Word Ways

A collection of illustrations and spoonerisms.

The Logologicomathematical 7x7 Puzzle, Jeremiah Farrell, Robert Friedhoffer

Word Ways

Reprinted with permission from Homage to a Pied Puzzler, ed. by E. Pegg, Jr., A.H. Schoen and T. Rodgers, AK Peters 2009 (www.akpeters.com).

Last Trip To Albuquerque, Steve Kahan

Word Ways

The capital of New Mexico beckons once more with the final collection of twenty five Albuquerque words. As was the case in the previous three journeys, their residues appear in Column A below, the result of eradication of a twice-repeated nonadjacent letter triad. Thirty of these comprise the listing in Column B, including five masquerading impostors. In performing the reconstructive surgery, remember that no triad can be reinserted into more than one residue. The brainpower required to complete this task, while considerable, would probably not phase ST- that's EINSTEIN's residue after the removal of the duplicate triad …

Toward More Efficient Number Mnemonics, Mike Keith

Word Ways

As pointed out by Ross Eckler in the Nov 2008 Word Ways ("Mnemonics for Number Sequences", p. 297), the well-known type of mnemonic which uses the length of successive words to represent a sequence of decimal digits (with a ten-letter word for each occurrence of zero) is not particularly efficient. If the sequence of digits of π and e, for example) then in the long run this scheme will have an "inefficiency ratio", defined as (total number of letters used)/(number of digits represented), of 5.5. This is pretty far away from 1, which could be considered ideal in some …

Bishop Spooner Goes On Holiday, A Anil

Word Ways

First stop, Australia. (AIL, AUSTRALIA!) His reaction: Australia? STRAY, ALL YA! Surprisingly, he gave all eight Oz capital cities good loving (?) Spoonfuls, some cognates.

Odd One Out, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

This article investigates 10-letter words which consist of the same letters (in any order) in their first and second halves except for one letter, the 'odd one out'. In SEPTUPLETS, the letters S, E, P, and T are repeated in the second half of the word; L is the odd one out. This is a perfect example, the word is solid, familiar and all the letters of the first half are different. In many cases, however, the same letter appears twice within either, or both, the first and second halves of the word. Where this happens, as …

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Theology, A Anil

Word Ways

It's a charade, isn't it, how Believers consider the study of religion to be the ology. As a blasphemer, I instead requisition THEOLOGY to serve as a logological term for studies of the word THE. (IF you object, just call it the-ology.) For starters, I investigated how much mischief can be wrought by iinserting "the" into the midst of known names, eponyms or pseudo-eponyms. The first below started it all and is the model for the rest. I exclude boring examples involving personal nouns, like Eric the Ambler, unless there is an affinity, like James the Brown. While most have …

Down But Not Out!, Oscar Thumpbindle

Word Ways

A crossword puzzle.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover, including instructions to authors and subscribers.

Anagrams And The Birthday Problem, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In his landmark book An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications (Wiley, 1950), William Feller describes the birthday problem, showing how to calculate the probability that in a given group of people at least two share the same month-and-day birthday. (For 23 people, this probability exceeds one-half.) Instead of talking about people sharing birthdays, one can consider words sharing letter distributions; two words having the same distribution are anagrams. It is easy to mathematically derive the probability that two or more share a birthday because the 365 possible birthdays are equally likely to occur. The analogous anagram probability is …

Atlas Shrugged, Oscar Thumpbindle

Word Ways

A crossword puzzle.

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Intergenerational Communication In Workplace, Yan Guan

Dissertations

This study investigates intergenerational relationships in organizational settings and uses Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to examine the influence of age, power, culture, and self-construal on young workers' perceptions of intergenerational communication. According to CAT, communication is stereotypical due to outgroup bias, people favor their own age or power group more than other age or power groups. CAT research showed that young Asians' perceptions of intergenerational communication may be more negative than their Western counterparts. Self-construal was studied to understand the nature of culture's influence. Research and theory supported nine hypotheses and three research questions.

A study using self-report measure was …

Requests Of Brown By Lc Classification: August 2009, Ruth E.. Souto

HELIN Monthly Loan Statistics

Requests of Brown from other HELIN libraries - August 2009

A Sense Of Trust Through The Eyes Of African American Doctoral Students: An Examination Of How A Predominantly White Institution Of Higher Education Can Create An Environment Of Inclusiveness, Zelda M. Deboyes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological research study explores whether trust influences the experiences of African American students, particularly those in doctoral programs at predominantly White institutions. Recent studies suggest that colleges and universities can benefit in several ways by building and maintaining student trust. However, the body of research typically provides a general understanding of the role and benefits of student trust in the academic arena through the eyes of White students only. Very few studies examine the benefits of student trust for a diverse population, and even fewer address African American students enrolled in predominantly White doctoral programs.

This research provides an …

A Case Study Of Culturally Responsive Teaching In Middle School Mathematics, Rosanne Fulton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of culturally responsive teaching in middle school mathematics. The study contributes to the emerging definition of learning experiences in mathematics that support all middle school students through the use of culturally responsive teaching strategies. These experiences are organized to actualize the balance between accommodating the individual student’s culture, needs and interests and supporting the attainment of appropriate mathematics learning goals.

The research site was chosen because of its diverse and changing student demographics, and because of the achievement and growth rates of these students. Data collected from classroom observations of three middle school mathematics …

Academic Leadership Experiences Of Foreign-Born African Immigrants In American Institutions Of Higher Education, Taiwo A. Ande

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose ofthis study was to explore the academic leadership experiences of foreign-born African immigrants who occupied mid- to senior-level positions of leadership in American colleges and universities. The study explored the cha1lenges and opportunities foreign-born African immigrants faced as they aspired and moved through various leadership positions in United States (U.S.) institutions of higher education. Detailed interviews were conducted with six foreign-born African academic leaders who currently or previously occupied academic leadership positions in the United States. Participants were from Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, and they occupied academic positions of directors, departmental chair, and associate provost. Seven themes emerged …

The Epistemic Irresponsibility Of The Subjects-Of-A-Life Account, Julia Tanner

Between the Species

In this paper I will argue that Regan’s subjects-of-a-life account is epistemically irresponsible. Firstly, in making so many epistemic claims. Secondly in making the claims themselves.

Review Of Matthew C. Halteman’S Compassionate Eating As Care Of Creation (Humane Society Of The United States, 2008), John Mcateer

Between the Species

No abstract provided.