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...

Impasta

11 October, 2017

Contest time on the DA blog, your chance to win your own Gargantuan Book of Words - an omnibus of brain-games, quizzes, riddles, word stories and a list like the one below. 

The Impasta List, as I call it. Said aloud, with the right Roman rhythm, each double sounds like a type of pasta, from plasma telly to Monday lotto.

For a chance to grab Gargantuan, your challenge is twofold - and molto piccante. First, can you provide any more additions to the list - bona-fide or bogus couplings that mimic pasta? And second, can you contrive a classy clue for any of the impastas already listed here? No need for definition - just wordplay only.

To ensure fairness, choose a pasta-flavoured alias. And to ease admin, please assemble your best TWO examples, from the TWO categories, before this Sunday at 5pm. I will announce the winner late next week. Dig in.

PLASMA TELLY

REAL CROAKY

TAN BIKINI

SILLY DONKEY

WARM BEANIE

LONG JOURNEY

TOO TOUCHY

ICE HOCKEY

BUSY DELI

MONDAY LOTTO

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