Puzzles, posts, news and general word-chat.

Diabolically Arcane

Bingo. You’ve reached David Astle dot com, a carnival of words, puzzles and more words. Welcome aboard, and have fun.

Loading tweet...

Complexity Enterprise

11 December, 2015

Thanks for so many inspired & inspiring clues over the week, trying to meet the 'simple' brief for Operation Wordburger. I'll sift the best this weekend and declare a winner of the burger book, or a Fairfax omnibus: the winner's choice.

Meanwhile, leaving cryptics behind, here's a Friday folly to consider. Handpick two words that contain opposites. Complexity enterprise, say, contains EXIT and ENTER. (Keep things incidental too, choosing words that don't relate to the ones they carry.) And then clue that longer pair - with word lengths - to see whether others can identify the related cargo.

You won't find these a pushover, so let's make the clues merciful, keeping with the Storm theme. For example: Sickly white wine (6,10) = quEASY cHARDonnay

DA1 - Shiny fissure (6,5)

DA2 - Gypsy time limit (6,6)

DA3Very embryonic (6,6)

DA4 - Hawkish US president (12,8)

DA5 - Favoured Italian city (10,6)

DA6Comprehensive aspirant (8,9)

What other covert opposites can you concoct?

comments powered by Disqus

Rewording The Brain

Focus & memory, lateral leaps & logic - every aspect of cognitive health is lit in Rewording The Brain, a book revelling in how puzzles boost your brain. Part 2 equips your brain to conquer any twisty clue, plus the wild crossword finale. Pop science meets neural gameplay, Rewording is rewarding, and out now.

Medal

Rewording The Brain

Care to renew your noodle? Rewording The Brain explores the latest neural studies, seeing how puzzles (and twisty clues) boost your neurons. Part 2 helps you crack such clues, and prep the grey matter for the crossword showcase to finish. More here

read more +

101 Weird Words (and 3 Fakes)

From Ambidextrous to Zugwang, this mini-dictionary teems with rare or alluring words, plus bonus riddles, puzzles and fun word-facts. Dictionary detective will also nab the collection's three fakes. Ideal for late primary schoolers, or word-nuts in general.

read more +

Gargantuan Book of Words

Sneeze words. Fake pasta. Viking slang. Gargantuan is a jumbo jumble of puzzles & games, mazes & quizzes, tailor-made for that wordy wonderkid in your life. Or anyone in love with letters, secret codes, puns, rhymes, emoji & all things languagey. More here 

read more +

Recent Comments

Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
See Results