Puzzles, posts, news and general word-chat.

Diabolically Arcane

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Bodies in Time

2 November, 2012

Two challenges to help you into the weekend, Dabblers. The first is about the bod, the moment I noticed that tongue and lung are rhymes. Then there’s eye and thigh – and we can leave the sole alone, please. But keeping things clean (though I don’t mind harmless slang): what else? Spine and hairline? Nose and toes? Can we create a list of ten?

Second challenge comes from Marie Salter, a long-time Wordwit solver. In her words:

I set out to change from spring to summer to autumn to winter and back to spring by changing one letter at a time and rearranging the letters. After a considerable time I eventually came up with:–

SPRING singer miners simmer SUMMER muster mature antrum AUTUMN antrum martin retain WINTER insert string SPRING.

Sterling effort, though even Marie is reluctant about ‘antrum’, a bone cavity. Maybe MUTUAL or AMOUNT could sweeten the cycle, and reduce Marie’s magic tally of 16 steps, from SPRING to SPRING in calendar order. How will your fare, friends?

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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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