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...

Biobes of Note

30 July, 2011

LEIGH SALES is a LEADING HOST AT LEAST, and a biobe to boot. That’s a verbal gewgaw where the person’s name is dispersed left to right in the person’s caption, just as ALI G is ADDLING (Nib), or a TENOR WITH MOJO – THROW PANTIES (SB) just has to be TOM JONES.

To pick the prime biobes, I ruled out those that carried one too many letters, like Peta’s AL GORE (FALLS TO GEORGE (from Peta) or duplicated words, like the PRS epiphany for THE BEATLES: THE BEAUT MELODIES. Fidelity was the other touchstone, since ANDY LEE is not a RANDY SLEAZE (one on my drawing board), though IVAN MILAT could say I’VE AN ABOMINABLE PAST (LR). Such rules of thumb opened the way to some brilliant biobes, with the best kept till last:

IAN BOTHAM – Giant bottom hams [RV leads the charge from the rear, if you follow my drift]

INDIRA GANDHI – Indian outrage at needless hit [Sobering and succinct work from SK]

WALT DISNEY – Was glaciated, insanely [Nib applies an ice-cool hand to history]

HEATH LEDGER – He’s a methylated goner [Vale, Heath, and kudos, One Wheel]

BANJO PATERSON – Bard enjoyed poetaster songs [A fine biobe, with a tricky J no less. Nib can be consoled to hear he went close to the podium with this guy.]

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Swilling malmsey, he makes up theatre [Impressive hit-out from RK, who dared to dream with a name of 18 letters….]

BING CROSBY: Being croons ably […and then made shorter work of the Bing.]

LARA BINGLE – Dollar-grabbing celeb [Speaking of Bada-Bings, please admire the Nibster at work once more.]

MARGARET OLLEY – Ms Art Great’s retro’s at the Gallery [Criseyde deserves a bronze medal alone for discovering that naughty mix of Margaret Olley: art gallery moll]

CHARLIE SHEEN – Charm, lies…the end [Exquisite work from SK that tells a tale from limelight to afterlife. He shares the silver…]

PHIL ANDERSON – Uphill land person […RV, who found a minor miracle in a Tour’s earlier Australian tourist.]

But I couldn’t ignore the technical genius, the topicality and the ha-ha cachet of LR’s SHANE WARNE [Shags new partner]. An obvious target, you may argue, but this biobe is brill and this week’s gold medal snagger. I’d even glanced at Warney in the early phases, and couldn’t see what LR found. It’s a tabloid knockout.

Thanks for the homages, the muck-raking, the punchlines: a dazzling biobic debut. New Tempest next week, after Trincolo’s final Tempest tonight.

"
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