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Diabolically Arcane

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Salon 28 - Festival Season

18 August, 2014

Crazy week this week, dabblers. Doing quite a few Fest things in Melbourne. The crossword session is a sellout, though there’s still a pew to grab if you wish to hear about secret treasures, or human handwriting. (And congrats to SK for scoring The Missing Ink prize in our last Storm.)

This week is also the kick-off week for the new MS, a look at riddles across the ages. More about that project later, but after months of research, and a few false starts, Riddling is up & roaring, spurred by a Yule deadline. If you have any riddle lore, yarns or leads, please drop a line as the marlin said.

Meantime I’m still riddling over 2 Picaroon clues, plus a Crucibile. Any ideas?

  1. A tip for trickery from one blue, politically = TORY [wordplay?]
  2. Special pair of queens in blue = SQUANDER [squander?]
  3. English paper’s readhead dropped? No latitude there! = EQUATOR [where’s OR come from?]

Any insights, or missed nuances, are welcome. Enjoy your wordy week.

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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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