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...

Ice Cube Clues

25 November, 2014

It's a rare clue that deserves its own post, and brainstorm. But that honour falls to The Guardian's Enigmatist from a few weeks back (26043) when he presented this novelty:

Mass of cold meat from skinned ribs succeed fantastically (3,4)

Only thanks to a few cross-letters did I suspect ICE CUBE, but how. Then I spotted the devilry, with 'ribs succeed' successively losing their 'skins'. The fantastic upshot of IBUCCEE, of course, is ICE CUBE.

Wow. That's one rare reductive anagram technique, in a stylish seamless clue. In tribute, can we duplicate a similar feet, even using a single fodder-word to strip. Like this:

Cat suffered vertigo endlessly = TIGER

Trying a weaker two-word version:

Cat stirs legs, bare and free

Jeez it's a tricky recipe. No wonder it's rare. Kudos to John Henderson (aka Enigmatist) for daring to dream such mischief. See if we can add to the marvel. 

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