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Raccoon Ran

12 May, 2011

You can treat this as a Birdbrain-in-progress. I’m currently putting together a Wordwit puzzle for the Herald, playing with words that own two double letters. Drop those two pairs, and see if a smaller word remains. RACCOON, say, can lose its double to make RAN. Hence a clue could say: Forager bolted.

Giving Herald readers a preview of the puzzle, here are the nine other examples I’ve discovered. Feel free to crack them, though I can’t help but think there are three or four lollapaloozas I’m missing. Any suggestions?

  1. Outlaw woodwind
  2. Turn cuspidor
  3. Enthrall Edgar
  4. Litigate hit
  5. Shaggy blemish
  6. Lament Brand
  7. Before Lady
  8. Clown roll?
  9. Horse bed

Let’s confine the answers to initials at first, to allow all comers to have a crack. And number any fresh additions. I wish you success.

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Rewording The Brain

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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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