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.

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Lattes and Numbers

4 December, 2012

The ABC barista is an artisan. Her name is Liva, and she sketches her customers in the crema of their orders. Here’s the Dictionary Man from yesterday, so faithful a thumbnail that I felt a little vandalistic slurping the coffee. Treat this iSnap as proof I once existed.

I’m also savouring the vocab of QC Robert Jay. He’s the silk on the Leveson Inquiry. The chap will give either Murdoch a disarming glance, and wheel out such welcome terms as condign, nugatory, pellucid and adumbrate. (See, the word does exist outside crosswords! Though it’s harder to display as an iSnap.)

My next Wordplay column is all about neglected vocab – the quiddity and propinquity of our glossary – and how we should embrace these overlooked relics. Novelist Will Self is one saviour of the recondite, as is Cormac McCarthy. Any other writers who revive the abstruse? Or have you struck an old word newly, of late? Be titivated to hear.

Look for a Storm-lite later today, as another mad week besets your blogmeister. For the live (and talkback) kind, try pod-slurping ABC Tasmania at 4.30pm, and 702 Sydney with Dominic Knight at 9.25pm. Odd words always welcome.

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Rewording The Brain

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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
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