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Diabolically Arcane

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

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Sardinewordsetc

12 April, 2013

Morning word lovers. Hoping you may help with two word queries, as well as add to an elite list. Let’s do things in the right order, shall we?

(1) When football commentators say the Judds of the AFL, the Pendleburys, the Malceskis…what is this grammatical device? Synecdoche doesn’t quite do it, as the rhetoric is more about making a unique talent into a type.

(2) Is there a word for the compression of a sentence or name, such as we see in this post’s title, or domain names like lifebeinit, bakersdelight?

Along those lines, where spacing can deceive, I dare you to find more ‘clues’ where the answer sits inside. Like this five-pack:

Patch in Asia (China)
Poet (Poe)
Push over
Superior carnivore
Insane Roman

Can you add to these elite stowaways?

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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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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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