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Diabolically Arcane

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Word Magic

10 November, 2015

Prize time, dabblers - with a succulent new Wordburger to win. Two in fact, as I'm happy to forward a Burger to the top two entries in this week's contest. (The book won't be out in stores until November 28, so this is a coup of a scoop.)

Our game is pretty open-ended. Choose an alias relating to hamburgers, and cook up a piece of word magic. By that I mean a simple manipulation or two that reveals some amazing quality about the word or name you choose. 

Like what, you ask. Like a trick that opens Wordburger:

FEAST can lose its evens to spell what happens to over-feasters - they become FAT. So why not remove an E to FAST? Or drop F and S to EAT normally?

Or: TAUT means STRAINED, which can lose its initial to make TRAINED, which means TAUGHT

Or: When I dance with LUDICROUS, I become RIDICULOUS, which means LUDICROUS.

Or: The odd letters of arch-feminist GERMAINE GREER spell out the modern literary feminist of (Hermoine) GRANGER.

You get the hang by now. Reveal some intriguing transition in a word or name, where one tweak, or a fresh perspective, wows your audience. Stick with burger-ish bylines, to keep things fair, and may the best two dazzlers enjoy the pre-sizzle of Wordburger: How To Be A  Champion Puzzler In 20 Quick Bites. (Contest closes this Thursday, 7pm. Get cooking.)

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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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