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...

Word Burghers

18 November, 2015

Hit the lights. Cue the fanfare. The time has come to go, ahem, testing, testing. And once the sound is sweet, to say, 'Here are the results from last week's Word Magic storm, with the top entrant - or two - set to score their own new Wordburger.'

Seems the mike is good. I'll proceed: 'Thanks for so many snazzy ideas, with over 50 submissions from such a snackable crowd as Dead Horse and Ronald, Extra Pickles and Vegie, Pattismith and Son of Bun, Sausage Sanga and Onassis Army Cede Bun - to name ten!'

My shortlist in order of arrival:

MUSTARD + RELISH with a tweak = MUST ADD, DELISH [Fries With That]

PAT on the back is a TAP on the back, ad infinitum [Meet Patty]

RAP = LASH, while WRAP = SHAWL [Extra Pickles]

A tale entangling PARTY - PAIR - PAR - PARITY [Pickles again]

Don't P in POOL - that's for the LOO [Vegie]

The odd of THOUGHT = HUH [Extra Pickles]

FLUSTERED? RESULT > FED! [Dead Horse]

SANCTIONS = LEGIT, or LEG IT! [Pattismith]

Regular STOUT? SOT! [Vegie]

COLONEL in a CORPS, while KERNEL is a CORE [Ronald]

Grocers' APOSTROPHE is A SHOP TROPE [Fries With That]

Rowers in ARRAY looking backwards at the YARRA [Stephen Fries!! via Sam]

To quote a platitude, I'm in gratitude of your wild-minded attitude. But please step forward Ronald (my pick among the pickles), and the Extra Pickler himself, who notched three honourables. Let me know your ID on the forum, and your snail mail via email. And for those dabblers who dipped out, there's a bright yellow book going for $15 this week that Santa recommends.... Dig in.

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