WoW: Carretela
CARRETELA [karr-ah-TELL-uh] - horse-drawn cart used in the Philippines. Its bodywork is low and two rows of passengers sit face to face. [Fro Spanish, small cart] The carretela is a popular rental for Manila's more grandiose weddings.
Reshap'd Pradesh
In a few weeks I'll be touring India with Wordburger, a non-vegan book for non-Hindi readers who can't get enough of quirky wordplay. Hence the blog has been a tad quiet as I cram to finish my 2nd manuscript inside 3 months. Crazy, hazy days of hay-fever November...
Anyhow, just to keep your clue-pecs toned, here's a shortlist of 15 Indian states and territories. Some delectable names for you to mould in any shape or mode, with no call for a definition unless that benefits the clue's flow.
Jump in. The subcontinent awaits.
ANDHRA PRADESH
BIHAR
GUJARAT
HARYANA
KARNATAKA
KERALA
MAHARASHTRA
MANIPUR
MIZORAM
NAGALAND
ODISHA
SIKKIM
TAMIL NADU
TRIPUNA
WEST BENGAL
Get it India!
WoW: Edison medicine
EDISON MEDICINE - US slang for electric shock therapy [After Thomas Alva Edison, creator of the lightbulb, among many other electric innovations.] Nurse Ratched "volunteered" McMurphy for a crash course of Edison medicine.
Ainstorm
This week's brainstorm comes from intermittent cluer and long-time mate of the site, JD. Her idea is so neat I was envious as soon as I opened her email. (And by all means send in your own Storm ideas.) The theme is BREXIT, where BR exits.
Tidy, timely, and illiant. As that's what words become when BR bails, from LI(BR)ARY to CANDELA(BR)A...
Let's indicate where the BR has been ditched, since a combo like INED will have us guessing if you meant INBRED or maybe BRINED.
Mind you, that dilemma will soon dispel as we need to offer both a definition (for the original word) and wordplay (for the BR-free version). Here's one or two openers:
DE(BR)IS - Curling side remains
(BR)ITAIN - Buttrose visiting UK
(BR)IC-A-(BR)AC - Acacia briefly wore baubles
Thanks JD for the (BR)AINWAVE. Let's see who can (BR)ING home the tastiest (BR)ISKET, showing Europe's loss is our gain.
WoW: Stravaig
STRAVAIG (struh-VAYG) - to meander without purpose [Scottish/N English dialect from Medieval Latin extravagari, from vagari to wander] Brown's cows were apt to stravaig until straggling home.
Phrases Of Course
All ten phrases below hail from the home straight of horse racing, with a snip of shorthand etymology in brackets. If you missed my equine cameo on News Breakfast this morning, talking track parlance, then view here. And look for this week's Wordplay column in the Sydney Morning Herald where I splice Flemington with Washington.
Meantime, a week from the Cup, can you win the 'Big Apple' with any of these gee-gee gems? All you need do is to craft a piece of wordplay only - no need for defintion unless that chimes sweetly with your subterfuge. Happy punting.
ACROSS THE BOARD [combination bet on tote]
GIVE AND TAKE [handicap system]
RUNNING MATE [companion horse]
FRONT RUNNER
HANDS DOWN [no need for whip]
SHOO-IN [only needs shooing over line]
HOME AND HOSED [easy win]
HOME STRETCH
COME A CROPPER [fall off horse]
BIG APPLE [plump prize purse]
And we're off!
WoW: Voluntourism
VOLUNTOURISM - Travel that also includes volunteer work [First cited in 2002 - a hybrid of vounteer/ing and tourism] Offering your services to emerging countries as part of a wider itinerary is Voluntourism 101.
Meh 24
This week's Storm is more a Meh post, where we debate the merits of some so-so Brit clues, as well as seize the chance to create our own clues for the same 7 answers. But first to the so-so. Do my list of plaints hold water, or am I betraying my inner curmudgeon?
1. From shortage of food, died, put to ground = DEARTH [Really? A shortage of food, or just a shortage? Not even touching the clue's grimness, from Times 9923]
2. Tree associated with common colour = LIME GREEN [I rekcon Brummmie has succumbed to a hookworm here, as limes are lime.]
3. Part of play, playwright clutching opening to act – he covers the background in theatre = SCENE PAINTER [Hookworm #2 with Tramp, as scenes are indeeds part of a play, hence a scene painter.]
4. Crashing bore very sensitive about conflict = BOER WAR [Unwise I reckon to make your anagram a homophone of the answer. From Times 10679]
5. Two men in kingly legend = ARTHURIAN [Worst Times clue of the year, from the above puzzle.]
6. Report firearms having been stolen = GUNSHOT [Another Times clanger, hate to say]
7. National newspaper = SCOTSMAN [And the newspaper is named after...?]
8. One is in nave, wide-eyed = NAIVE [Dare you to create an easier cryptic clue, more facile than Otterden's offering. In fact that could be our Storm: who can out-simple this simple cryptic?]
Keen to get your feedback, and your zestful alternatives.
WoW: Logomaniac
LOGOMANIAC - one obsessed with words, or talking. [From Greek logos, word, plus -mania, fixation] Without naming names, or bylines, I suggest this blog may entertain more than one logomaniac.
Cartoonist Contest
Cartoon fans will know these names, or recognise the messy signatures attributed to each legend. All 20 are giants of the New Yorker cartoon desk, cranking out gags for more than half a century.
(Pssst - cartoon fans will also love the four events I'm hosting over the next fortnight, toasting the work (and new book) of Melbourne imp, Oslo Davis. For details, head for the events page on Oslo's site. All are free, inc a caption contest with prizes.)
But perhaps you can win Oslo's book - Drawing Funny - right here. In celebration of all things, see who can best convert any of these captioneers into a nifty cryptic clue - with no wordplay needed. No call for a cover-name. Just go nuts, and submit your finest before Friday 5pm. I will pick the pearl next week.
So have fun with the letters, and come celebrate the funny pictures if you can.
CHARLES ADDAMS PETER ARNO
CHARLES BARSOTTI GEORGE BOOTH
ROZ CHAST TOM CHENEY
LEO CULLUM DANA FRADON
EDWARD KOREN ARNIE LEVIN
FRANK MODELL GARRETT PRICE
MISCHA RICHTER WILLIAM STEIG
SAUL STEINBERG PETER STEINER
MICK STEVENS JAMES THURBER
BARNEY TOBEY JACK ZIEGLER
WoW: Makiwara
MAKIWARA [mark-ee-WAH-ra] - a padded stake used in karate training, the Eastern equivalent of a punching bag. [Literally 'rolled straw'] As dojo students develop, they graduate from a soft makiwara to a stiff makiwara.
AWOL Animals
To bookmark the blog's disappearance for 10 days - damn domain disputes - let's try a Storm where beasts beat a retreat.
Pick any word, where any kind of animal is nesting. Perhaps that's a PUMA in SPUMANTE, or the OWL in SUPERBOWL. Once these animals go AWOL, you are left with SNTE and SUPERB to clue.
That's the trick - concocting a clue that defines the original word, yet wangles the wordplay upon the leftovers only. Here's my first stab:
PAVI (PAVILION) - Cake on one stand
BRIE (BRIEFLY) - For a twinkling French wheel?
C (CRAVEN) - C-Chicken
Have some fun with the format. See who can qualify into the Who's Who of the AWOL Zoo.
WoW: Thrasonical
THRASONICAL [threy-SON-i-kuhl] - prone to boasting; vainglorious [From the braggart Thraso, as appears in Terence's play, Eunuchus] Grand final celebrations will tend to foment a rash of chest-beating, thrasonical behaviour.
Plese Give Bld
Ding-dong the glitch is dead. The DA website is back in action, after an enforced lull of IT wrangling and platform disputes.
The hiatus reminded me how rewarding this portal can be, hosting the cream in creative clueing, and sharing news, words and other scuttlebutt of an alphabetical nature. I hope you missed your word-nerd hit as well.
So to celebrate the site's resuscitation, let's do what some companies did last month - and donate blood. In name at least. In case you missed the yarn, several UK firms agreed to remove the blood types (A, B and O) from their names, inspiring folks to give their own blood.
Lovely gimmick. And a perfect Storm idea. Pick a company, and remove its various blood types - then clue the new transfused entity. Like so:
FXTEL - Movie racket OK in hindsight [FX + LET<]
NISC (NABISCO) - Regular clients mismanaged [CINS*]
PTUS - Puts out
As you can see, please provide parsing [where the clue is unpacked] for the more intricate bits of wordplay. And maybe let us know the company - like NABISCO - if the blood-drawing is extensive. Otherwise, get gory. Tell us an amazing story.
Long Time No Blog
Seems the blog is back on air. Hoo-bloody-ray and many thanks for your kind words over Twitter and personal email in the interim. Over a week of cyber-silence that's set to be broken tomorrow with a brief Storm, just like old times.
But this post is a place-holder in the meantime, a phew to recognise DA.com's revival. The glitch was linked to a muddle in domain names and domain renewals, but all that's in the tedious past.
To celebrate the return of abnormal services, a few zingers from this week's Picaroon to savour:
Sarkozy's very small - it's a bit of a shock (5)
Bedazzled throng following One Direction (9)
Public scoffs a starter of cheese and ham (7)
Good to be back.
Australian A-Z (2)
Two weeks back I wheeled out the quirkier entries from the Australian National Dictionary, which gets its free Melbourne launch tonight. (I'm hunching the gig is booked out, but you can always try here.)
Anyhow, we kneaded a dozen Oz words, from AMPSTER to GONCE. A bonza Storm in anyone's vernacular. So now to fanfare the launch, we get our chance to mangle the alphabet's second half, all terms drawn from the same handsome tome. Carn - take a crack, digger.
GUMLEAF MAFIA - Australian actors in Hollywood
HOOSHTER - a camel driver (after the common Afghan call)
KOALA STAMP - merit award
LOLA MONTEZ - rum cocktail, named after a notable stripper
MULLENISE - to clear scrub (after Charles Mullen, a Gawler farmer)
NIGEL NO MATES - loner
OOGLIE - undesirable fish (corruption of ugly)
PACIFIC PESO - Australian dollar, as stigmatised by Paul Keating
PATIO INTELLECTUAL - pseudo-academic or general blowhard
SHINDYKIT - business consortium (alteration of syndicate)
SPEEWAH - imaginary station of many tall tales
YANKEE START - unfair advantage
WoW: Menoporsche
MENOPORSCHE - angst exhibited by some men upon reaching middle age, especially in the guise of a new sports car, or a fling with a younger woman; a luxury car purchased by a man undergoing a mid-life crisis. [Menopause + Porsche] Big boys with flash toys are often a symptom of menoporsche.
Home Letter
Can't say what will happen with this Storm, but that hasn't stopped me in the past, so why should it stop you?
English has several words that can be cased in two letters, so making two adjacent words unlinked to the opening term. OMELETTE, say, can sit in HR to create HOME LETTER. Just as the surname CAMPBELL can convert into SCAMP BELLY.
Choosing wisely, you may turn any seven-plus letter word or name into a sweet phrase, or at least a phrase that could warrant a comical-cryptical definition. To show you the drill, try these four:
LOVER HEART - It throbs for thee
SALAD DINE - Vegan feast
'UPON TOONS' - Animation Oration
FATTEN DANCER - Prepare for the 17 veils
As you can see, your source word can vary in length. (But let's aim for seven-plus.) Just as the two-word split can fall anywhere, though TO MISSIONS isn't such a staggering makeover of OMISSION. Likewise, if you can, avoid a hookworm duplication like SHOOK WORMS, or morphing winehouse into SWINE HOUSED etc.
Aside from that, see what we can create. In essence, we have a double challenge: who can contrive the most stylish split, and the sleekest clue? Or possibly that feat will be one and the same. Start fattening your dancers.
WoW: Ahimsa
AHIMSA [a-HIM-zaa] - core principle of Buddhism and Hinduism promoting non-violence towards all living things. [From Sanskrit, a- meaning non-, plus himsa, violence] The sacred cows of Varanasi benefit from the citizens' ahimsa.
Australian A-Z
Melbourne bodies, help us raise a schooner to toast a brand-new dictionary landing in the Australian landscape in a few weeks. The event is free at Readings bookstore, though bookings are essential.
I'll be chatting with the lexicon's leading lights, Bruce Moore and Amanda Laugesen, getting their take on Ned Kelly pies, mates' rates, motorbike frogs and grey nomads. Plus these other entries below, which seem ripe for clue-crafting.
Can you convert any of these home-grown terms - including definition - into a bonza clue? An admiring tip of the Akubra to the pick of the crop. (As you can see, I've only raided the early alphabet, so rich is this lexicon.)
AMPSTER - decoy who works with a sideshow operator, acting like an enthusiastic onlooker to arouse the interest of others; spruiker's stooge
ANGASI - mud oyster
ANZACKERY - wartime memorablia
AUSTERICA - mishmash of Australian and American culture, as coined by Robin Boyd
BIRRIDA - gypsum claypan
BOKO - animal blind in one eye
BUCKEENING - ritual killing of the enemy for kidney fat
BUNYIPIAN - fantastic; monstrous
CAFE LATTE SET - you know who you are
COWPAT LOTTO - fund-raising game involving a paddock of numbered squares and wandering cattle
CRAWLSOME - obsequious
DREY - possum nest
FANTAIL BANGER - heavy morning coat
GONCE - money
Perhaps I'll unleash H-Z next week, closer to the lexicon's Melbourne lift-off. Be great to see youse there. Ooroo.
Recent Comments