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Diabolically Arcane

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Isis Crisis

17 June, 2014

Here’s a Storm idea to evoke the Garden of Eden, since a pair is banished from one word to create the other. Rather than cryptic clues, let’s go for elliptic, meaning a sneaky & succinct signpost to what two words you’ve rendered. Current Iraq plight, say, would be ISIS CRISIS. While Condom would be a CONTRACEPTION CONTRAPTION.

As you can see, the reduced word can be the first or second. While in all cases, the two banish letters must be consecutive.

Let’s supply answer counts – as these will be tricky to solve. Plus your byline and number too, allowing us to keep track of what has been cracked. Here’s my opening bunch:

DA1State apparatus (5,7)
DA2Lashing horror flick (9,3,7)
DA3Sexual cow (8,10)
DA4Bird nut (7,5)
DA5Seizes peasants (7,5)
DA6Bluntly: a journo (7,4,5)

Go on – have a banish bash.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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 

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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
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