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Bottom-Up Finds Some Squares Faster, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

"Designing a List For Word Squares" in the August 1996 Word Ways shows that a word list intended for finding squares can be improved by balancing letter frequencies. In general, we want the fraction at which that letter exists in the word-stock. In particular, we want to enhance the fraction of words beginning with e,i,n or o (and to a limited extent beginning with a or u), and the fraction of words ending with a,i,o or u.

Placename Isogramy, Dan Tilque

Word Ways

Out in the far reaches of Long Island lies the town of Bridgehampton. This name, being a fairly long isogram, has often caught my attention in my periodic perusals of various atlases. It is, as far as I know, the longest solidly written placename isogram in the United Sates.

Moore Or Less The Night Before Christmas, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

In turning a poem on its opposite pole, the parodist must be wary of exact opposites to the author's words. They don't always reverse the sense, and they can land you back in the original meaning. Just as two negatives make a positive, "what should appear" = "it can't stay hidden." Keep a copy of Clement Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas" next to you to keep track and compare.

Word Arithmetic, Rex Gooch

Word Ways

This article attempts to provide a taxonomy and nomenclature for that type of wordplay which involves manipulating the numerical equivalents of letters in words. Later articles will present results for two particular sub-species of manipulation: absolute difference words and cyclic difference words.

The Imperial Sotadic Legacy, Walter Fretlaw

Word Ways

DRAT SADDAM A MAD DASTARD is worthy of ranking among the classic English-language palindromes and yet no one seems willing to claim authorship. By contrast, ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA is grudgingly attributed to Napoleon even though such an authority as Howard Bergerson, in his Palindrome and Anagrams (Dover, 1973), hints that the notoriously modest Leigh Mercer may have had some association with it.

A New Look At The Jotto Problem, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

The so-called Jotto problem--construct five five-letter words out of 25 different letters--was examined in the first issue of Word Ways on February 1968. Why is it called this? If one's guess word in the two-person game of Jotto is scored 0 (no letters in common with the target word), one's next guess should be a word containing no letters in common with the first one.

Eulerian Magic Word Squares, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

In the May 1933 Word Ways, Lee Sallows introduced a form of gematria he called wints (word integers), based on the use of the alphabet and a space to express numbers in base 27. (In normal gementria, A=1, B=2, etc.) His article included 3x3 and 4x4 magic squares made from wints and found by computer search. In May 1996 he presented additional 3x3 squares found by computer search. In the original article, many of the magic constants were wints. This was not true for the later set. Most are simply Euler squares which become magic for any gematria.

Numerical Palindromes: Part 1, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

At first sight, RESEDACEAE (the plant family to which the mignonette belongs) is not a palindrome. But it is--in disguise! When its ten letters are split into two equal groups of five letters each, and the letter assigned the values A=1, B=2, ... RESED- totals 51 whilst -ACEAE totals 15.

Asteroid Prediction Tricks, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Someone chooses a letter from the word ASTEROID, and your task is to ask questions until you can identify the chooser's letter. If the questions are of the form "which of the following tow words contains your letter?", two are sufficient for identification:

Fledge Ledge Edge, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

As a new contributor I have to admit I got here by turnip truck (three decades of serious writing). But then I saw Word Ways, and the tail gate opened. Also the floor gate. With such endless wordplay possibilities, can even the veterans remember all the moves? And new comers certainly need an introduction.

Graphing The Proverbs, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

As my recent contributions to Word Ways show, I enjoy graphing. But, one day I got bored with long words which I would never use in writing or speech. Somehow, I thought of graphing proverbs. Here is a sample.

Pop Culture In Ny Times Crosswords, Faith Eckler

Word Ways

The following material, extracted from a National Puzzlers' League round-robin letter, should be of interest to Word Ways readers.

Tautonyms In Biology (Part 2), Samuel S. Long

Word Ways

Mabuya mabuya (common mabuya lizard) Gk: animal's name

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Transplants, Peter Newby

Word Ways

It was contemplating the logological consequences of the term 'heart transplant' that gave me the ideas for a whole new form of wordplay. I have already produced three distinctly different objectives all based upon the same technique and, doubtless, others can be devised.

Noun-Sense, Stephen Sniderman

Word Ways

Normally, to change an adjective into a noun, we add NESS (cute, cuteness) or ITY (popular, popularity). But there are many exceptions, some of which seem to follow a pattern and some of which seem to be unique.

The Chainsaw Critic, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

AUDEN densest establishment entrant, antiquated tedium

Letter-Perfect Word Games, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

They're ba-a-a-a-ck... the readers or listeners who write or e-mail or call or stop me on the street to ask "There are three words in the English Language that end in g-r-y. Two of them are angry and hungry. What is the third?

What's That You Say?, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

You will very likely recognize most of the words asked for in this quiz--once you get them. But the clues are rather difficult and involve etymologies and other connections that are very tangled. Readers said "Harder words, please!" Try these.

T-T-T-That's All, Folks!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

The May 1996 Word Ways described the results of a National Public Radio competition of December 1995 in which listeners were challenged to write grammatical and understandable sentences containing the same word four or more times in succession. Some of the most interesting entries were based on repeated thats; this article summarizes them. Four thats is relatively easy, as achieved by the following strategy:

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

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

Back Cover

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to Word Ways.

Voila Fone, Olive Noaf

Word Ways

Having settled the gantlet-gauntlet debate, Word Ways threw down the one to send naive fools running the other (November 1995, "Alphabet Poems: A Brief History"). Rhyming alphabetic telestics: none known. Attempts tended to split rhymes by as much as eight lines. Don't carp at "limneD" in the following; if you read out loud, the "d" isn't sounded until the next line. Admit, Nyr Indictor, the glove fits, and is fashionably cosmopolitan.

Palindromic Names, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

There are lots of palindromic given names, for example, ADA, ANNA, BOB, ELLE, EVE, HANNAH, and OTTO. More unusual ones include ABBA, AOITOA, ESSESE, Lerrel, Neven, ODDO and VYV.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 29 Issue 3

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

Fantasia For The Left Hand, William Zinsser

Word Ways

crazed zebras craved egress

at a garage

scared bats vacated

Writer Poor - Typewriter Poorer, Jan Anderson

Word Ways

i type pretty well

yet i require row 1 - row 2 - lower tier - top two too

little-to-upper letter tripper - typo error o'er-writer -

roller puller retro roto-pirouetter -

priority to write properly - elite

i'll put up 5 owe 20 - or title you to equity - ie poetry -

top qu'lity

reply to e poe

Playing Jotto Against A Computer, A. Ross Eckler, Faith W. Eckler

Word Ways

The November 1989 Word Ways reviewed Recreational Mathemagical Software (Clarks Summit PA) designed for playing the game of Jotto with a computer. In the two-person game of Jotto, each person selects a five-letter target word; the object is to guess your opponent's word before he guesses yours. To identify his target word, you propose a sequence of five-letter words, and your opponent tells you how many letters of the guess word are in his target word. For example, if the target word is PIVOT, THOSE scores 2 (T,O match) and MUNCH, 0. You and your opponent agree beforehand on a …

Tautonyms In Biology (Part 1), Samuel S. Long

Word Ways

One of my hobbies is collecting tautonyms--a harmless and inexpensive activity. Unlike rock-collecting, tautonym-collecting is clean, requires very little exertion, and only a small amount of storage space. Unlike coin or stamp-collecting, tautonym-collecting does not deal in objects of value; I don't have a safe to keep my tautonyms secure, nor do i Have to pay anyone when i come across a tautonym.

Dr. Ford's Palindromia, David Woodside

Word Ways

Dr. Nemo W. Ford is not exactly at the forefront of human sexuality research in this country. Rather, his work is somewhat on the fringe of accepted practices and clinical techniques. With a 'Dr. of Women' degree from the University of Californication, he has investigated the intricacies of modern American sexual behavior for several years.