Digital Commons Network^™

A Checklist Of Transposable People, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Name such as Gary Gray and Edna Dean have been a frequent topic in Word Ways. Here is a checklist summarizing who is known to exist (asterisks denoting new discoveries). Most can be found in the various editions of national telephone directories on CD-ROM, such as PhoneDisc: (numbered) sources for others are noted. In all cases actual names are reported, with reasonable inferences given in parentheses.

Zounds! The Boundless Scoundrel!

Word Ways

Superficially impressive, Mr. Echler, but, following your continued con-claim to Mary's lipolambs ("Heckle the Feckless Eckler" and "Fat-back's Setback" in May), I re-examined your previous tours de farce and found one that is actually yours. Yet even there, in tossing out half the alphabet, you kept everything of real value. Should we applaud your omission of Z? X? J? V? Q? K? My challenge now, Sir: a less wooden response to Frostly sylvania, this time with a less self-selected half of the alphabet, as here using only every other letter (A,C,E,... W,Y).

Logozoology, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

Many children's magazines feature picture puzzles in which the young readers are asked to identify a number of hidden animals. In a cloud may lurk a cow, in the leaves of a tree may be concealed a fish, and on the side of the house may be soaring an eagle. The same is true with language. Inside words prowl all manner of beast, and inside animal words are hidden all kinds of logological variations.

Word Densities, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

Following Charles Bostick in the May 1974 Word Ways, we define the weight of a letter as its position in the alphabet (A=1, etc.), and the weight of a word as the sum of the weights of its letters. The density of a word is defined as its weight divided by the number of letters in it, so that the density of a word is none other than the average weight of letters it contains.

The Dentist (Eth Stinted), William Webster

Word Ways

Each word can be anagrammed to an OSPD word (except for proper names) ; all apostrophes are omitted (SIT = IT'S).

Kickshaws, Dave Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Bananagrams 2, Edmund Conti

Word Ways

Find the anagrams that go in the following ten couplets. In view of two tragedies this past winter, the advice in the sixth couplet is especially timely. And should Cinton head the seventh? The tenth is dedicated to Glett Burgess. Answers can be found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

Hot Sun, Or Life In A Car, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Josefa Heiftz Byrne's famous anagram of Southern California, given in the May 1970 Word Ways, is an apt description of my recent three-week holiday in the American southwest. Actually, I spent very little time there; about 75 per cent of the visit was spent in the neighbouring state of Arizona, with forays into Mexico, Utah and Nevada.

Horsing Around With Swift, Robert F. Fleissner

Word Ways

Humor in satire can be a ticklish business and indeed in more ways than one. In the case of Jonathan Swift, why did he have to make the horses in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels superior to the yahoos (or human beings)? The reader is expected to take the contrast somewhat lightly, even as the very name of horse country. Houyhnhnm-land, obviously echoes the whinny of the beast of burden. Yet here are certain other connotative meanings now worth considering:

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

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

The Aeinrst Problem, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Over the last three decades, Word Ways has presented various exhaustive lists of transposals of particular sets of letters. The most fecund group of transposals is formed from the eight letters AEGINRST. The main article listing the various transposals was authored by Dmitri Borgmann, and appeared in the November 1976 Word Ways. There has been various follow-on correspondence published at other dates, the most substantial of which was by Jeff Grant, and the February and May 1994 Word Ways. A complete gathering of the 157 AEGINRST transposals appears in Ross Eckler's excellent Making the Alphabet Dance.

The Gunpowdery Blacksmith, Eric Chaikin

Word Ways

As described in Making the Alphabet Dance (and earlier in the February 1977 Word Ways), two English words can use a maximum of 20 different letters without repeating at least one. This is accomplished by the GUNPOWDERY BLACKSMITH who is by now assured a place in logological history.

Homos And Heteros: The Truth Revealed, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

In Kickshaws in the February 1998 Word Ways, Richard Lederer does well to raise the problem of describing the relationship between a pair of words in respect of meaning, appearance (spelling) and pronunciation. The last is always likely to cause problems: for example, wen and when are pronounced the same by most people, but not by those who most of my dictionaries). Shades of meaning may also cause disagreements. Derivation may also be of interest, though not always known.

Cultural Commentary: Bananers, Hooking Up, Political Correctness: Bridgewater Students Observe The English Language, Barbara Apstein

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Lycanthropus Palindromis, James Puder

Word Ways

Flow, Eridanus! Liven a red, nude dune-devil! I'll animus' nider, ill I will! A pall I will! It's ill? It's all I will!...

Elf Eyrie, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

In the February 1998 Word Ways Elf Eyrie's elf, Scarfin' Fatback, and I stuck mostly with sonnet-form parodies of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, and there are more ways to do those too. For instance, a fun one to try is combining two well-known sonnets:

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 31 Issue 2

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Looney's My Name, But I'M Not Insane, Mary Christine Craig

Word Ways

Interesting names are everywhere. Take, for example, the editor of Better Homes and Gardens, who signs her John Henry as Jean Lem Mon. Don't tell me she didn't doctor up her name so she wouldn't be associated with a sour yellow fruit!

Even More Long Words From The Oed, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Do you recall asking about long words in the Oxford English Dictionary that used letters, digits, hyphens, Greek letters and a variety of other characters?

Pun Palindromes, Winfred S. Emmons

Word Ways

YASSER ESSAY Arafrat to his English professor, agreeing to do a paper

EGAD, NO DONDAGE! What 007 said when he realized his dominatrix would not tie him up.

Lear's In Israel?, Ghil'ad Zuckermann

Word Ways

There, she took a "bunch" of roses, and a rat devoured a worm. No pure disaster or suffering was caused. On the street, a Gypsy named Methuselah pushed in mortal danger a doctor dressed in white clothes.

Four Out Of Five, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Keen Scrabble-player and wordsmith Michael Vnuk of Annerley in Queenland, Australia wrote to me recently:

Snakes And Ladders, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

Word chains or ladders have been a source of challenge and enjoyment since their invention as "doublets" by Lewis Carroll over a century ago, in 1879. They were called Transformations by "Professor" Hofmann. Despite significant advances since Ross Eckler published his first study of word graphs (networks), there still remain challenges for those who relish hard work, and easier challenges for those seeking mere enjoyment.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Heckle The Feckless Eckler

Word Ways

By now most of you have figured out my real identity, and know that I've written virtually all of the great classics of the last four centuries, plus most of the Word Ways. But few know that not only did I write the original "Mary Had A Little Lamb," but all, yes ALL of the lipograms of the poem attributed to A. Ross Eckler.

Fatback's Setback, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Scarfin' Fatback challenges me to write an O-less parody of Frost's Stopping by Woods, anguish languishing each line as much as possible. I respond with this denial of his authorship of Mary's Liopgrams and other great literature.

Wordplay In The L. Frank Baum Fantasies, Martin Gardner

Word Ways

Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and thirteen other Oz books, also wrote many fantasies for children that did not have Oz as a setting. In all these books he liked to make up names for persons, places, and things. These names often involved word play. Puns were the most common form, but Baum also indulged in anagrams, spoonerisms, reversals, and other forms of linguistic whimsies.

German Humour, Peter Newby

Word Ways

A Jew, fleeing form the Gestapo, sought sanctuary in a crowded church. When the priest saw the secret state police checking his congregation he announced fearfully "All Jews to leave the church". The Jew remained in his pew and continued his silent prayers and, once again, the priest made his cowardly announcement.

Removing Embedded Letter Patterns, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

This is similar to the words within words game in which an embedded word is removed from a longer word to make a third word by joining the letters remaining at the beginning and end of the original word. For example, removing MEMBER from CAMEMBERT makes CAT.