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.

Loading tweet...

Salon 43

10 September, 2012

Still reeling from yesterday’s violation of North Melbourne. The Eagles were brutal. Masterful. The mauling reached such a pitch I grew to admire our assailants. While the Kangas did so well to make the semis, we were monstered by a great team, a serious flag threat after Hawthorn and a miserly Sydney – and that’s not sour grapes talking. The Roos were roadkilled.

Making me feel flat too. No ticklish word stories to report, except a very meh clue I encountered in my new Telegraph book of crosswords. The title calls them Toughie, but nothing you lot should fear. A pretty decent collection too, though this clue from Busman is among the worst I’ve seen for a while:

Letter from aunt, no name = TAU

Hard to imagine crafting a poorer specimen. Can you redeem it? Can you outdo it? I’m sure you can do the latter.

By the way, here’s the Salon for crossword chitchat. You know the drill – the Times and the G, and clues like the Busman’s road-crash. The best and the worst, right here all week.

comments powered by Disqus

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.

Medal

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

read more +

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.

read more +

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 

read more +

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
See Results