June 28 2011
Heads or Tails?
With news of our beloved echidna nearing extinction – via our five-cent piece – the time is right to play a verbal game of two-up for this week’s Storm. But be warned – just like two-up – this pastime can soon become addictive.
Here’s the game. Pick a phrase, a song, a movie, anything with a decent cluster of words, and see what word you can spell by choosing the head or tail of each word, as you read across the line. For example, that chop-socky gem from China, House of Flying Daggers would give you HOGS. Not that swine feature largely in the film, but it’s a start.
Looking elsewhere, The Devil Wears Prada can make ELSA, while Smells Like Teen Spirit renders SENT. Getting warmer. We’re after an outcome that somehow reflects on the source – or just a discovery that amazes by virtue of length or beauty.
Two of my better efforts:
Shop till you drop = STUD
All over bar the shouting = LOBES
But my favourite belongs to that blue-collar band, Hunters and Collectors, whose softer anthem (Throw Your Arms Around Me) yields TRADE. As for the use of A or I – or any single letter in a phrase – that’s fine. Shake a leg, for what it’s worth, could give you SAG.
So that’s the racket. Can you outshine, out-measure, out-call to win this week’s Storm? No material prizes – though a jar of coins can be negotiable. But two categories – Best Appropriate and Rarest Find. Go to it, tossers.
Comments
RK — 28 June at 10:47AM
Live and Let Die = LATE
Milk of Human Kindness = MONK
Much Ado About Nothing = MOAN
DC — 28 June at 11:30AM
Not quite on-topic, but I immediately looked at a list of long movie titles, and can report that
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex... But Were Afraid to Ask
becomes
GUS DO WAX, BED OK
If we can steal that Y in 'always' to make GUYS, it almost makes sense.
Also, the latest XKCD comic on acronyms (xkcd.com) may be of interest to people here.
RK — 28 June at 11:36AM
The Catcher in the Rye = TRITE
The Social Network = TLK
DA — 28 June at 11:39AM
Very much on topic, DC. Since the winner for longest entry (and/or rarest) may unearth a stunning word list. To take a lame example:
Throw out the baby with the bathwater - TOEY, WEB
As XKCD, that's WTF at first glance. I'll need to investigate. Cheers -
DA — 28 June at 11:41AM
TRITE is t'riffic, RK
SK — 28 June at 11:44AM
A tribute to the humble 5c piece, the role of Federal Treasury, and freedom of speech (false or otherwise)-
Give your five cents worth = GRECH
DC — 28 June at 12:06PM
I'm not sure XKCD is in its prime, but it's done some brilliant things -- more about science and computing and love than language.
For those unaware, Douglas Hofstadter is the author of Godel, Escher, Bach, a seminal work on meaning and mathematics, which is full of wordplay and puzzles.
Peta — 28 June at 12:14PM
Gone With The Wind - Ew! Ew!
The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Maybe - eponym
The Wind In the Willows - Edits
Brave New World - End
RK — 28 June at 12:16PM
The Wind in the Willows = TWITS
RM — 28 June at 12:29PM
I hear they're remaking Footloose. That makes me
Let's Hear It For The Boy - SHIRTY, and I think the people making it are SHIFTY.
RM — 28 June at 12:35PM
So close. The only letter in the last word that's *not* the first or last would give:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man = A poet saga
DA — 28 June at 12:38PM
A POET SAGA is one letter from dazzling.
GRECH is grand too, SK. Some fine brain-starters in the first wave. You're too good.
RM — 28 June at 12:49PM
Still thinking about 1A in last weekend's DA.
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face - End, The.
Boniface — 28 June at 01:03PM
Make a rod for your own back - MARRY, OK?
Mud in your eye - MIRE
Slip of the tongue - POET
Twinkling of an eye - GONE
Man of the cloth - MOTH
DA — 28 June at 01:40PM
A Boniface bonanza -
An American In Paris - ANIS?
PMCD — 28 June at 02:11PM
The Old Curiosity Shop has - TOYS
Alas poor Yorrick, I knew him Horatio - SPY I WHO ?
Two wrongs do not make a right - TWO NEAT
Heads or Tails is - HOT
ML — 28 June at 04:44PM
Paris in the spring - PITS
ML — 28 June at 04:53PM
send me an angel - DEAL
Nib — 28 June at 08:39PM
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell THE CAR BY REDS.
Nib — 28 June at 09:10PM
Soylent Green is people! SNIP!
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. SO, A DOT.
Luke, I am your father. LIAR! F-
CFG — 28 June at 09:58PM
It's A Wonderful Life - SALE
CFG — 28 June at 10:09PM
What A Wonderful World For You - TAWDRY
CFG — 28 June at 10:15PM
Life, The Universe And Everything - ETUDE
DA — 28 June at 10:18PM
CFG, at this rate (and quality), you'll be casting a shadow over the Brainstorm as impressive as the BFG.
Douglas Adams would be chuffed with ETUDE. The music of the spheres perhaps? Great stuff.
Mr X — 28 June at 11:04PM
Fittingly, Heads & Tails gives the two opposing views on the accessability of:
2001: A Space Odyssey = ODD/EASY
RM — 29 June at 07:04AM
When the Wind Blows = NEWS.
RM — 29 June at 07:20AM
Fahrenheit 451 = FREE
SK — 29 June at 07:50AM
Point of no return = POOR
DA — 29 June at 08:22AM
NEWS
POOR
All new, and rich - good entries.
Here's the frustrating thing, I came across one phrase or title that gave me ORCAS, but now I'm struggling to figure out what the source was.
(Makes you realise how tricky these would be to identify in reverse. Any help appreciated.)
Sam — 29 June at 10:35AM
Pride and Prejudice = PAP
Poet in New York = PINK
and
The Master and Margarita = TRAM (thinking of the death of one of the characters, Berlioz)
RK — 29 June at 10:46AM
To rain cats and dogs?
DA — 29 June at 10:50AM
@RK, you should consider a career in cryptography. Last week, the Adam Goodes coup, yesterday the John Peel escape, and now the cat-and-dog rescue. What's the secret?
RK — 29 June at 10:54AM
You know DA, these are skills that have never served me any useful purpose in life until discovering your blog. I'm still waiting for that call from ASIO.
Criseyde — 29 June at 04:26PM
One flew over the cuckoo's nest = OW! REST!
Boniface — 29 June at 09:10PM
Hay and Hell and Booligal - HALAL
Tangled up in Blue - TUNE (by Bob Dylan)
Mr X — 29 June at 10:41PM
This Shakespeare quote reveals two things the Bard was known for creating:
Now is the winter of our discontent = WIT/WORD
DA — 30 June at 06:06AM
Lovely find, X.
Both mine have a fiscal flavour, with a cautionary twist:
Once We Were Kings - OWES
Too Big To Fail - OBOL
MT — 30 June at 07:44AM
King Of The Road - GOER