Recently added articles from Word Ways:
Punderful etymologies.(puns)
May 01, 2009; ... Scoffing at puns is a conditioned reflex, and through the centuries groan-ups have aimed a steady barrage of libel and slander at pun ladies and pun gents. Three hundred years ago, the playwright and critic John Dennis sneered, "A pun is the lowest form of wit." Many of you Verbatim ...
Counting.(Poem)
May 01, 2009; ... <Pre> COUNTING Numberless son,Let me teach you(Or you teach me)Your natural lore.While we're aliveArithmetic's ...
Triangular progressions.(word puzzles)(Brief article)
May 01, 2009; ... Consider the word QUILLS. Arrange the letters, in order, to make a triangle: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Now assign the letters their numerical positions in the alphabet (A = 1, B = 2 etc). The result is Q = 17; U + I = 30, and L + L + S = 43. The difference between the ...
Some irregular haiku.(Brief article)
May 01, 2009; ... These poems have 17 syllables but unapologetically fail the 5-7-5 line pattern for haiku. Let me unapologise. Japanese haiku in English translation also usually fail that test and must even be teased into 17 syllables. To the purist I say: only Japanese haiku, untranslated, are true haiku ....
Colloquy.
May 01, 2009; ... Don Hauptman wrote the New York Times: To the Editor, "Pun for the Ages" by Joseph Tartakovsky (Op-ed, March 28) is an entertaining and informative review of the positive and negative aspects of wordplay, and well-timed in its proximity to April Fool's Day. ...