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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22 January, 2013

The fact diggers behind the popular show are called the QI Elves. And last night on Twitter (my new toy, I admit), they posted this observation: The word ‘bed’ looks like a bed, and the word ‘shark’ looks like a shark (swimming from right to left)”

Same goes for hammock. And I like how football ends on two uprights. Or with a tweak, you can create a plunger for dynamiTe. We may have dabbled in this territory before, under the banner of autologues, but see who can eclipse the elves for mischief.

By way of weak segue, Q&A almost resembles two bodies facing each other. In this case one body is girl.com.au, grilling DA.org. In a short space we cover Zumba, MAMIL and moofer.

And tonight on RRR I’ll be playing the Q-role with Krissy Nicholson, a remarkable young woman who’s worked at ground zero in tsunami relief, African famine and Pakistan quakes. Tune in to hear her tales first-hand.

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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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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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