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Another Palindromic Insertion, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

In the November 1982 issue of Word Ways, I exhibited a palindromic alphabetic insertion based on AA, a type of rought, scoriaceous lava. A complete list of 26 words was found, starting with AAA, ABA, ACA ... through the AZA.

A Third Olympic Quiz, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In August 1976, Word Ways presented a quiz of mine called "An Olympic Quiz". Readers were given 60 common words, ranging in length from one to seven letters, and asked to combine each of these in turn with the letters of OLYMPIC to make a new word. For example, GALA plus OLYMPIC gives POLYGAMICAL, and REACH plus OLYMPIC gives both MICROCEPHALY and PYROCHEMICAL.

Prehistory In Action, Chris Cole

Word Ways

Molecular geneticists propose that all living human beings are descendants of a single woman who lived about 350,000 years ago. Evolutionary linguists propose that the cladogram of all human languages follows closely the cladogram of the molecular geneticists. Does it then folow that all of modern English derives from the language spoken by our prehistoric mother? And, if so, how is it that synonyms arise?

Love Letters, Gary Roma

Word Ways

Words are but lucky letters. How do letters get lucky? They go to bars. Let's have a look.

Junctures: An Abecedum, Alfred Lubran

Word Ways

Editor's Note: Alfred Lubran's article was inspired by the note on page 164 of David Crystal's "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" (reviewed in the November 1991 Word Ways); his examples of A, I, N, and T are reproduced below. All words can be found in Chambers English Dictionary.

Pigpen-Cipher-Invertible Squares, John Bulten

Word Ways

In "Maggie Had a Little Pigpen" in the May 1991 Word Ways, Peter Newby pointed out that if a 3-by-3 word square was encoded using the pigpen cipher and inverted, it might be possible to read off another 3-by-3 square upon decoding.

Oh, Cello Full Of Echoes, Herbert Pfeiffer

Word Ways

Editor's Note: Readers may recall Herbert Pfeiffer's palindromic poem, "Plaudere, du Alp!" reputedly the longest palindrome in German, printed with a partial translation in May 1985 Word Ways.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

For Some Reason Cheese, Stephen J. Chism

Word Ways

I don't propose to explain it. Cheese is as unlikely as it is likely: a seemingly ordinary food product. Why, then, do we find it treated more thoroughly in palindromes than any other substance? This enigma functions as a perfect metaphor for the whole subject of palindromes, full of eerie truths (Tessa's in Italy: Latin is asset) and bizarre images (Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas).

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue including instructions to authors.

Direct And Indirect Belief, Curtis Brown

Philosophy Faculty Research

This paper discusses that one's being in a particular belief state is nevertheless best characterized by a set of propositions, namely those one would believe in any situation in which one were in that belief state. The main purpose in this paper is to develop and defend the distinction between direct and indirect belief.

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 25 Issue 2

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

In Quest Of A Pangram (Part 2), Lee Sallow

Word Ways

Looking back on it, I suppose the failure of the Pangram Machine Mark I was piece of good fortune. I mean, otherwise the faster Mark II model might never have come into existence. Another advantage of the latter was that different initial text constraints of rewiring. This meant I could experiment at will, confined only by the initially chosen set of number-word ranges, an important limitation, but still granting much scope.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

How Many Words Support A Square?, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Select words of n letters at random from a dictionary, one at a time. How many different words must one select before one can form a word square out of n of them?

Common 4x4 Wordsquares, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

In a companion article, the editor estimates the number of m-letter words to be drawn at random from the dictionary in order to have a reasonable expectation of forming an mxm word square. This is a task admirably suited to the computer, which can take a list of words and check all possible combinations for potential squares.

Screenplay On Words, Gary Roma

Word Ways

Editor's Note: This is the script for a standup routine the author performs in comedy clubs around Boston.

A Word Square Of The Future, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Star Date: 32-11-23

Captain's Log: Circumvolitating Rigil 3-D. Not much doing. Teleporter on the fritz again. Used logocomputer to build a double 9-square (flawed). All solidform, several strained/obsolete terms.

The Monosyllabic Raven, David Morice

Word Ways

Poe's poem "The Raven has been rewritten for Word Ways under various kinds of literary constraint. The editor's homoliteral raven (each word shares at least one letter with its successor) and heteroliteral raven (each word has no letter in common with its successor) were published in the May and November 1976 issues.

Palindrome In A Palindrome, Howard Richler

Word Ways

Solve these thirty palindromic phrases (vowels AEIOU given) and then read down the third letters of each palindrome to discover another palindromic phrase describing Dan Quayle's lament on the White House lawn.

Qhats, Peter Newby

Word Ways

Of the many obsolete spelling of WHAT, QHAT holds the greatest appeal for me. It possesses an impact which expresses instant disbelief that such a word has appeared in print. And that is the quality of a qhat. It says WHAT!!!

Yeltsin, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

Boris Yeltsin has achieved world prominence in the last year or so, especially because of the part he played in the events surrounding the Russian coup in August 1991 and his presidency of Russia.

The Moriarty Challenge, Angus G. James

Word Ways

"And what do you make of this, my dear fellow?" asked Holmes one morning after breakfast, as I stood in the bow window of our rooms staring out at the passing show in Baker Street. He handed me a single sheet of paper on which the following 78 different words were scrawled.

The Most Anagrammatic Capital?, Mary Lois Dennison

Word Ways

Caren is acting as a tour guide for Tomas, a visitor to a certain state capital. Its letters can be repeatedly rearranged to fill the blank spaces in the dialogue below with appropriate phrases. Can you complete their conversation? Answers are found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

I Felt, Y'Know Like Wow, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

With slang expressions galore, one need never be at a loss for words to say how one feels. Here are some more or less familiar expressions. In each case, what feeling are they used to covey? Answers can be found in the Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue including instructions to authors.

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Collinear Words, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

In the February 1992 Word Ways, Christopher McManus introduced the concept of halfway words: trios of words where every letter in the middle word is midway in the alphabet between the corresponding letters in the end words (for example, AGE-JIG-SKI, where J is halfway between E and I).

Eight-Squares In Webster's Second, Eric Albert

Word Ways

Editor Note: The following set of eight-squares is the result of a computer search of the Air Force tape of Webster's Second Unabridged for eight-squares consisting solely of solid (unhyphenated) words, carried out by Eric Albert in 1989 and independently by Chris Long in 1992.