Recently added articles from Word Ways:
English: best for(e) play with words.
Aug 01, 2008; Eckler, A. Ross ... The following talk was presented at the international conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the American Society for Geolinguistics at New York University on April 20 1985 Let me put my cards on the table at the start of this talk. I'm a language chauvinist--I believe ...
Obamanastics.(analysis of Barack Obama's name)
Aug 01, 2008; Eckler, A. Ross ... What is onomastically remarkable about Barack Obama's name? If one sets A=I, B=2, ... Z=26, adds the numerical version (2+1+18+1+3+11+15+2+1+13+1 = 68), and divides by the number of letters (11), one obtains a "density" of 6.2. So what? Although statistics are difficult to come ...
Colloquy.(discussion on writers who worked on mathematical and word puzzles)
Aug 01, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On the day of the 2008 Summer Solstice, we spent several delightful hours meeting with Martin Gardner at his home in Norman, Oklahoma. The picture shows the editor discussing with Martin the manuscript of his soon to be published book on Word Play. The ...
Insiders.
Aug 01, 2008; Puder, Jim ... I first became aware of this particular wordplay recreation when I noticed its use in the Nov. 8, 1998 New York Times Crossword puzzle, which was composed by Robert Malinow and entitled "Insiders." Although the concept of insiders may well have been an original one with Malinow, I have ...
Three Jog Knight.(a word game that got its name from the rock band Three Dog Night)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008; Jacobs, Harold ... The rock band Three Dog Night started to become popular in the late 60s. At that time, I created a puzzle to lead into a lesson in one of my math classes which I called the Three Jog Knight. Its purpose was to introduce some ideas about vectors; the puzzle was to show all of the ways in ...
A uni-verse of language, Part 2.(KICKSHAWS)(poems that contain wordplays)(Poem)
Aug 01, 2008 ... In the opening Kickshaw, Rich Lederer continues displaying a selection of his wordplay poems accompanied by comments on language. It begins with a drawing I made of Rich for a wonderful but sadly short lived magazine for younger people called "Time Machine." Rich wrote a column for it ...
A needed new word?(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008; Hauptman, Don ... Word Ways' regular wordplay contributor Don Hauptman reports: Recently, I bought an iPhone. Friends teased me, deeming it an extravagance, especially because I work at home and rarely use my cell phone. But the device is so technologically advanced and fascinating ...
FREEEE fall.(KICKSHAWS)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Jeff Grant comments on the previous issue: "I am about halfway through 'Word Ways' so far. It is great having stuff by Ross, and Dave Silverman--a blast from the past. Dave died just a few months after my first WW contribution in August 1977. "In the latest Colloquy Jerry may ...
Scrabble tales, scrabble tiles.(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Three volunteer workers were playing Scrabble at Uptown Bill's, the coffee house where I work. One of them, an attractive, well-built woman age 19, had to leave, and she asked me to take her place in the game. She got up and went to get her coat from a nearby chair. I looked at her ...
Ross's spoonergram.(KICKSHAWS)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Ross Eckler discovered "a spoonergram almost as good as ...
Stock market conditions.(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... "With the current state of the economy I have been spending more time reading the financial section of the newspaper, paying special attention to the stock market," Bill Brandt notes. "In doing so I have observed some interesting stock activity." + Hosiery stocks have ...
Word order.(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... "Did you know that the phrase 'word order' has a number of hidden secrets?" Susan Thorpe asks. "Firstly, it is a ladder phrase: WOR DOR DER (see Ladder Words WW2002279) Also: the 2 words are straddled by a choice of Miami sequences: WORD ORDER WORD ORDER Also: the 2 words are straddled by ...
Interlocking ladders.(KICKSHAWS)(word games)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... "These phrases/sentences are made of 2 or more short word ladders which interlock," Susan writes. "The changed letters are underlined. 2 interlocking ladders In the ifrst example, the 2 ladders are, respectively, CUTE CUTS CATS and SHE THE TOE CUTE, SHE ...
A hidden word ladder.(KICKSHAWS)
Aug 01, 2008 ... To top everything off, Susan constructed a phrase that ...
When words don't fail us.(KICKSHAWS)(word play on the words salt and pepper)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Frank Ruben suggests a change to a pair of words in Ray Love's "When Word's Fail Us" in the last Kickshaws. In it, Ray said, "There is pepper spray but no salt spray." Frank points out that "anyone who has ever stood in the bow of a boat, at the end of a pier, or atop a seawall during ...
Two recent off-the-cuff puns by Morry Markowitz.(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... 1. A fellow named Nando owns a restaurant on the same block in NYC where I usually stay when I visit the city. He came here from Iran probably about 20+ years ago, but when asked he refers to himself as "Persian," possibly being mindful of the reflexive distate for anything Iranian these ...
Bait and rebate.(KICKSHAWS)(humor on tax rebates)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Morry gives this commentary on the tax rebate. Note that some people, such as the very poor, did not get a rebate. The federal government is sending each and every one of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China. If ...
A cinematic coincidence.(KICKSHAWS)(anagrams)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... Morty found a nice pair of anagrams that are related in other ways: "Don't think I ever mentioned this to you--nothing stupendous, but moderately interesting: ...
Morrie's friend Don Hauptman provides the following postscript....(KICKSHAWS)(Brief article)
Aug 01, 2008 ... In 1977, famed composer/conductor Andre Previn decided, for some reason, to host a TV talk show. The format might best be described as cerebral conversation in the Charlie Rose mode. A few Internet links suggest that I was watching a rebroadcast of a BBC program. The show ...
Ray, Gene, and the Washington Post word contests.(KICKSHAWS)
Aug 01, 2008 ... "Here is a correspondence I had with the guy who occasionally sends me the latest Washington Post word contest--he lives in that area," Ray Love explains. "I thought this contest was fun so I came up with some of my own. Maybe it would make a nice Kickshaw and your readers could send in ...