September 16, 2007
Order of Magnitude Quiz: Dunkin
To win this quiz (and receive absolutely nothing), your answers have to be within an order of magnitude.
According to an article in today's Boston Globe: 1) How many Dunkin Donut stores are there? 2) How many donuts do they serve per year? 3) How many pounds of fat do they use for frying up those donuts? (It's transfatty oil at this point.)
The answers are in the first comment.
Posted by self at 10:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 05, 2007
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): ATMs
How much money do you think is in a typical fully-stocked ATM?
Not that I'm contemplating anything. Just wondering. Also, Any ideas about how to put a false bottom into a duffel bag? Just curious. [Tags: doep puzzle atm]
Posted by self at 12:58 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
March 31, 2007
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): The speed of a crawl
During a speech a couple of weeks ago, I characterized the crawl on the bottom of CNN as "news delivered at 4 mph." I made up the speed, but it seemed like a reasonable approximation, since it seems to go at about walking speed.
This morning I was watching a news channel on the little TV in our bedroom: It took about four seconds to go across a screen about 15" wide. If I were watching it on, say, a 60" wide TV, it would have taken four seconds to cover four times the distance and thus would be traveling four times as fast. If it were a 4 mile wide screen, it'd be travelling at a mile per second.
So, how fast does a news crawl (if a news crawl could crawl news)? And why doesn't it look faster on a big set?
I know it's so elementary that it's embarrassing, but I'm sick, ok? Slightly feverish. Really. [Tags: doep puzzle]
Posted by self at 07:28 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
March 11, 2007
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Too much meaning
Here's a question I try to answer in the latest issue of my (free) newsletter: If too much information is noise, what's too much meaning?
In fact, here's the table of contents of that issue. (Note: The answer I come up with is not good enough to count as a spoiler.)
|
The abundance of meaning: If too much information is noise, what's too much meaning? |
[Tags: doep puzzle everything_is_miscellaneous ]
Posted by self at 11:39 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 04, 2007
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Shampoo sham?
Why do shampoo bottles tells us to wash our hair twice? The stuff we use to clean whitewall tires (well, those of us who clean whitewalls, which definitely seems like a losing proposition) doesn't tell us to lather, rinse and repeat. Is our hair really that dirty? Or — perish the thought — is this just a way of getting us to use up the shampoo twice as quickly?
Science? Marketing? Just good hygiene? [Tags: doep puzzle]
Posted by self at 09:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 23, 2007
DOEP: Daily Open-Ended Puzzle: State of the Union Negative Bingo
In tonight's State of the Union address, there are some words and phrases that are bound to appear — "prevail," "work together," and "that our military leaders have requested" — and we could play Bingo with them, or take a shot of tequila every time they show up.
Instead, let's play Negative Bingo in which you are given a card with phrases on it (or perhaps you should be allowed to purchase words the way you can buy search terms at Google) and you lose points for every one that does show up. (Caution: Don't take a shot every time one of your words is not used.)
For example, here are some terms unlikely to show up in the mouth of the Great Decider tonight:
"Victory parade"
"As I was reading in the Koran recently..."
"Abu Ghraib"
"Raise taxes" and "to pay for" in the same sentence
"The right of women to..."
"Osama Bin Laden"
"Maimed"
"Thanks to Al Gore..."
Any admission of error expressed in the active voice
The terms have to have some likelihood of showing up, so you don't get credit for Bush not using the phrases "prolapsed anus" or "I'm sorry." In fact, different terms should be worth different amounts. A negative words market perhaps?
Anyway, what words would you put on your negative bingo card?
No need to believe me on this—much less to care—but I think I was one of the inventors of the sort of phrase-bingo people play at speeches like this. In the early 1990s, when I was at Interleaf, I created phrase bingo cards for a company meeting. I even wrote a Lisp script to generate them, which for me was like programming the lunar lander. I thought it was a new idea then, although I'm sure its eventual success was due to someone else inventing it earlier or afterwards. Anyone know the history of this epiphenomenon? [Tags: does politics bush humor bingo]
Posted by self at 08:19 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 12, 2007
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks is a Wikipedia-style wiki for people to place leaked documents, untraceably. According to the FAQ, "It combines the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the transparency and simplicity of a wiki interface." "Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to a much more exacting scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency could provide: the scrutiny of a worldwide community of informed wiki editors."
It's ambitious. The FAQ says:
Wikileaks may become the most powerful "intelligence agency" on earth — an intelligence agency of the people. It will be an open source, democratic intelligence agency. But it will be far more principled, and far less parochial than any governmental intelligence agency; consequently, it will be more accurate, and more relevant. It will have no commercial or national interests at heart; its only interests will be truth and freedom of information. Unlike the covert activities of state intelligence agencies, Wikileaks will rely upon the power of overt fact to inform citizens about the truths of their world.
It's got a million leaked docs already and expects to surpass Wikipedia in number of entries. But it's hard to see how it becomes anything like an intelligence agency if it only consists of leaks; if a citizen wants information about a topic, seeing only the leaked material is going to give quite a skewed and incomplete view. On the other hand, if you're researching a topic, I can see the value of checking in with Wikileaks to see if there's anything you're not supposed to know about it.
Here's another bit from the FAQ:
Couldn't leaking involve invasions of privacy? Couldn't mass leaking of documents be irresponsible? Aren't some leaks deliberately false and misleading?
Providing a forum for freely posting information involves the potential for abuse, but measures can be taken to minimize any potential harm. The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinize and discuss leaked documents.
It'll be fascinating to see how this works out in the edge cases. Does posting the names of covert agents count as a leak? [Tags: wikileaks wikis wikipedia intelligence politics media everything_is_miscellaneous ]
Posted by self at 01:28 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
January 08, 2007
Order of magnitude quiz: Boob jobs
In 2005, how many breast enhancement surgeries were performed in the U.S., excluding reconstructive ones? (Source: Boston Globe)
Getting this answer right means getting it within an order of magnitude.
The answer is in the first comment. [Tags: puzzles medicine surgery]
Posted by self at 09:30 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
December 31, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Democratic report card
The Democratic Congressional Committee has posted a report card you can fill in. (Thanks for the link, Chip.) It's a pretty bland set of questions. So, what questions would you add?
For example:
How can the Democrats show they're as strong on terrorism as the Republicans?
a. Have Howard Dean eat Saddam Hussein's liver on TV.
b. Reveal that Hillary served as a Navy SEAL for four years.
c. Require the candidates to work the word "pussy" into their stump speeches.
d. Prosecute more teenagers for downloading music.
What phrase would you prefer the Democrats use instead of "surge"?
a. Squander.
b. Operation Incapable of Learning.
What strategy is most likely to lead to a Democratic victory in the 2008 Presidential elections?
a. Run a campaign exactly like John Kerry's but just 4% better this time.
b. Find a charismatic younger person, perhaps from a mixed racial background, who energizes masses of eligible non-voters with a message of hope.
c. Learn how to program electronic voting machines.
Should we impeach the bastard?
a. Yes.
b. And how!
c. And his little dog, too!
[Tags: doep puzzle politics humor]
Posted by self at 02:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 13, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Icelandic marketing
I don't know who came up with the name "Iceland," but it's a marketing disaster. Surely such a beautiful and interesting nation deserve better! And you're just the folks to do it. So, put on your marketing caps (and make sure they've got earflaps) and come up with a name that better represents the Iceland brand. E.g.,
"Winterwonderland"
"Frostia"
"Disney Presents Iceland"
[Tags: doep puzzle marketing iceland]
Posted by self at 12:16 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
December 09, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Past tense of wiki
At the symposium I'm at, we're discussing how long the conference wiki should be left up and editable, which raises the question: What is the past tense of wiki?
Posted by self at 11:52 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
November 20, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Angry packaging
What packaging makes your blood boil?
I hate the thick, clear plastic, blister-packaging that's sealed all the way around and inviolable except with a serious knife or possibly a band saw. And puncturing it isn't enough. The plastic is so thick that you have to actually carve the product out of its container. Because the cut plastic is itself sharp, I worry about amputating a finger if the knife slips.
I also hate the way the cut plastic smells, but now I'm just piling on.
On the other hand, I find this to be funny to the point of being depressing...
And you? Vent your packaged ire!
[Tags: doep puzzle packaging marketing]
Posted by self at 10:08 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
November 09, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): 100-hour mischief
The Democrats are (smartly) committed to a 100 hours of introducing legislation that defines them as a party, little things such as raising the minimum wage from Debtors Prison level to full Squalor.
But after six years of watching the worst president in our lifetime strut his time upon the stage, don't you think the Democrats are entitled to a little fun? In those first 100 hours, what legislation could the Democrats pass just for the pure hell of it? Require Bush to deliver the State of the Union topless so we can all see how amazingly buff he's gotten on our watch? Hold hearings, complete with subpoened witnesses, charts and graphs, to determine which is worse, war or blow jobs? Trade in all presidential limousines for Priuses (Prii?)? Replace the opening prayer at Congress with a Moment of Gloating?
It's been a long six years... [Tags: doep puzzle politics]
Posted by self at 11:46 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
November 06, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Color coding cables
As I crawl through the jungle of black vines under my desk, I'm led to wonder: If you were able to create a standard—no folksonomies here!—for color coding the cables going into and out of a computer, what sort of scheme would you come up with? [Tags: doep puzzle taxonomy everything_is_miscellaneous]
Posted by self at 10:50 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
October 25, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Six-word stories
The current issue of Wired has a feature I like a lot: They got 33 sf writers to contribute six-word short stories. So, I'm shamelessly ripping off that idea, but with a twist. Here's the six-word version of today's DOEP:
Six-word story. Any genre. Surprise ending.
For example:
Duel to death at noon. Eclipse.
Brother impregnates sister. Disgusting. They're bees.*
For extra points, make it Web-themed... [Tags: doep puzzle]
*I know that bees don't get pregnant, and I'm not sure that the concept of brother and sister really applies, but let's just say that's all part of the surprise ending.
Posted by self at 10:41 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 22, 2006
A Rubik's Cube solution that for me needs a solution
I am so poorly oriented in space that I cannot make a checkers move without first physically moving the piece. I can stand on a marked street corner with a map and a compass and still go wrong 50% of the time. When I take a shirt out of a drawer, I can't predict which half will be on my left, although I do pride myself on rarely going wrong about which will be the outside.
So, this "procedure" for solving a Rubik's Cube is to me indistinguishable from gibberish, even though I'm certain that it's right. [Tags: rubik's_cube puzzles]
Posted by self at 11:22 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
October 20, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Partisan name-calling
The Republicans are in a concerted way calling Democrats "Defeatocrats." Forget whether the content is true or not, and ignore how degrading to democracy name-calling is. "Defeatocrat" is just lame. Not only doesn't it rhyme with "Democrat," it doesn't even scan.
Surely we can help the Republicans come up with a better insulting term for the Democrats! [Tags: doep puzzle]
Posted by self at 11:33 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 15, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Ending Oz
If The Wizard of Oz were written today, how would it end? [Tags: doep puzzle oz]
Posted by self at 12:53 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Microwaves
Instructions for cooking in a normal oven tell you how long and how hot. But microwaves rely on unscaled buttons for "power" that vary from machine to machine. Why isn't there a standard unit of cooking energy for microwaves so instructions could say "Cook in your microwave for ten minutes at 350 joules" (or ohms, watts, newtons, pounds per square inch, parsecs, francs, or whatever the right unit of measurement is...I'm a humanities major, dammit!)? [Tags: doep puzzles]
Posted by self at 02:51 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 11, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Happy bees
What would it take to make a bumble bee happy?
(My answer is the first in the comments.) [Tags: puzzle :doep]
Posted by self at 11:33 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 10, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Name the things you beat
After three seasons of trying, I finally biked up the big hill that leads to our street. I had to drop into second gear and stand up and pump each half-cycle like Suzanne Pleshette bench pressing her own weight*, but I made it, dammit. Of course, being passed by a twelve-year old on a bike piled with 75 pounds of school books didn't do anything for my mood. But I made it, dammit.
The hill is named "Corey Road," but that doesn't sound very impressive in sentences that begin: "I finally beat _____." So, I'm looking for a more impressive nickname for the street. "I finally beat Glory Road." "I finally beat The Widow-Maker." You know, something like that.
Suggestions? [Tags: doep puzzles]
*That was a completely gratuitous Suzanne Pleshette reference. I just like her name. It sounds like fake fur.
Posted by self at 04:55 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
October 08, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Marketing
My son and I were distressed to find out that non-tivo-ed tv is still showing ads. So as we watched the five minutes of The Monkees that we could endure—an infuriating and stupid ripoff of The Beatles' movies—we were forced to see a 30 second ad that showed an attractive young woman sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. "Don't you wish everything was soft?" the narrator asks as the bench turns into a comfy couch.
1. Can you guess what this ad advertises? No, this is not the open-ended part of the puzzle, although it does give a new meaning to "open-ended." The answer is in the first comment.
2. Once you've checked the answer, if you were in charge of marketing that product, what would one of your television commercials look like? Keep in mind that it has to be suitable for showing on whatever lame-ass cable station shows Monkee re-runs, although I suppose you could pick some other program to sponsor.
3. For extra credit, how might you market it on the Internet, and how would that change what you say about it? [Tags: doep puzzle]
Posted by self at 11:30 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 03, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Last state
If you were asked to list all of the states in the US, which would be the last one you'd think of? And care to say where you're from? [Added restriction, after the first three entries: You have to think of this state without actually listing them for yourself. That is, which would be the last you list, not which is the last you list.] [Tags: puzzle absurdities doep]
Posted by self at 10:09 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
September 29, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Markets are
I leave tonight for a conference in Maastricht devoted to the topic "Markets are conversations." I give the final keynote, which is also the final speech of the conference. So, since I'm carrying the Cluetrain banner and the attendees—Dutch marketers—will have spent 1.5 days on the topic, it's tempting to announce in an authoritative tone of voice that Cluetrain was wrong about markets. They're not conversations. Markets are _________.
The aim is to fill in the blank with the most ridiculous plural noun for which one could still make some type of semi-reasonable case. To enter, you have to give the noun and a brief version of the case. For example, markets are petting zoos because, while they're fun for a little while, it takes days to wash the stink off your hands.
Ok, so that one didn't make much sense, but I'm sure you'll do better. [Tags: puzzle]
Posted by self at 09:34 AM | Comments (23) | TrackBack
September 28, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Names now wrong
This is from Michael O'Connor Clarke who recalls trying to explain why pipe cleaners are called "pipe cleaners" to a six year old who had never seen anyone smoking. He wonders if there are "other examples of things still in everyday use whose names refer back to functions long since rendered obsolete." (A quibble: Pipe cleaners are still used to clean pipes, just not as often as twenty years ago.)
Keep in mind that even though this is supposedly an open-ended puzzle, I'm not looking for words whose etymology refers to something obsolete, but words that have current plain-text meanings unrelated to their current use. So the fact that I picked up from my parents the habit of occasionally referring to a refrigerator as an "icebox" doesn't count because that does not refer to its use, and neither does the quasi-fact that "testify" comes from the Roman practice of men holding their testicles when giving evidence in court. A telephone "dial" is also not a great example because it doesn't refer to what it's used for but to how it's used.
A perfect example would be ... ? [Tags: puzzle]
Posted by self at 12:29 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
September 26, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (Intermittent): Reframing the news
Here are the lead articles from USA Today, and their evil twin reframings.
Original | Reframed |
Liquids not as risky as first feared: TSA will allow air travelers to carrry items onto planes | TSA challenges terrorists: Bet you can't bring down a plane with just 3-oz bottles of liquid! |
Do thin models warp girls' body image? Even the fashion industry concedes that gaunt is not good. But can an unhealthy trend be reversed? | Adding insult to injury: Fashion industry says to world's starving "And you're ugly, too" |
Your open-ended challenge: Reframe one of today's headlines.
(By the way, if you're wondering why I'm doing these quizzes instead of actual blogging, I am heads down revising my book, so I'm feeling sort of pressed. Plus, for the past couple of days I've been at meetings I'm not allowed to blog about.) [Tags: doep puzzles]
Posted by self at 09:29 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 25, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (Intermittent): Disabling
If you had to choose to give up one sense, which one would it be? But I'm really asking so I can ask Part 2: If you had to deprive all humans of one sense, which one would it be? Why? [Tags: puzzles]
Posted by self at 09:53 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
September 24, 2006
DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Rivers
This episode of DOEP is yet another excuse for me to be dumb in public. This time, it's about rivers.
Why does the mighty Mississippi roar? I'm pretty sure it's not because of that powerful north-to-south gravity that's so obvious on globes. Well, at least on globes that, in a fit of blatant hemispheric jingoism, put the north on top. Let me generalize: Why do rivers have currents? And if it's because they come from melted snow rushing down mountains, then why are there rivers in the summer? And how do you explain the Amazon? Or the Nile? Or the Konkapot? Where's all that water coming from and why is it in such a hurry to get somewhere? Why doesn't it stop to smell the flowers, Mr. Businessman?
So, to summarize: Why didn't I take freshman geography?
[Tags: doep puzzle rivers geography]
Posted by self at 07:24 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
September 13, 2006
DOEP - Daily Open-Ended Puzzle (one time only): Opposites
In English, chopping a tree down is not the opposite of chopping it up. Throwing in the towel is not the opposite of throwing out the towel. Taking someone in is not the opposite of taking someone out. Throwing a sandwich down is not the opposite of throwing it up.
What are other examples of opposite prepositions used in non-opposite ways? [Tags: doep puzzle]
Posted by self at 02:41 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
September 12, 2006
DOEP - Daily Open Ended Puzzle (one time only): Sounds in the wind
Sound is a wave moving through a medium, right? So, if air is the medium, if there's a breeze, why doesn't that totally fry the sound? How can we hear anything in a breeze except the breeze?
(Technically, this isn't a puzzle so much as me being stupid in public. So, what else is new?) [Tags: doep puzzle quiz]
Posted by self at 08:21 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 11, 2006
DOEP - Daily Open-Ended Puzzle (one time only): Facing front
Name some things that can be seen and photographed from the front but that have no top down view and no view from the back.
For extra credit: Of the three available spatial dimensions (string theorists need not apply), how many would you say that thing occupies?
My suggested answers are in the comments. And yours? [Tags: doep puzzle quiz]
Posted by self at 08:56 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
September 09, 2006
DOEP ( Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (one time only): - mirror room
Imagine a cube 2 meters square on every side. Imagine all six inner surfaces are lined with high quality mirrors, with no seams. Imagine that in the center of the room there is a small light bulb of the 60W variety. There is a tiny light sensor that leads to a meter on the oustide. The light is on. Now flick it off.
What happens inside the cube?
a. It goes dark as quickly as when you turn off the light in a sealed closet.
b. It goes dark imperceptibly slower than in the sealed closet.
c. It stays lit surprisingly long.
d. If the mirrors were perfect and you took out the sensor and made the light source invisible, you'd have a perpetual source of light, except that it would be completely sealed and thus of less use than a whale oil lamp.
e. Something else happens. [Tags: quiz puzzle doep physics]
Posted by self at 04:31 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 08, 2006
DOEP - The Daily Open-Ended Puzzle (one time only)
Say a city decides to put its public bus stops on the sides of the intersection immediately after the traffic lights rather than immediately before the lights. Will this:
a. Decrease the overall transit time from one side of the city to another
b. Increase the overall transit time
c. Have no consistent effect on overall transit time
d. Go away you boring git
(Note: I'm not claiming to have an answer to this.) [Tags: puzzle quiz doep]
Posted by self at 11:28 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
June 04, 2006
Bogus Contest: Die Hard rev. 4
Bruce Willis is set to make a fourth Die Hard movie, in which his character, John McCainMcClane comes out of retirement "to battle terrorists intent on using the internet to spread their attacks." According to Entertainment iAfrica, the original script was titled Die Hard 4.0, but Willis nixed the pix's title.
The previous Die Hards were titled: Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Die Hard with a Vengeance. So, what would be a good title for the fourth Die Hard given that it has the Internet as its villain? For example:
Die Hard on the Internets
Die Hard 404
Die Hard: Packet Wars
Die Hard: Vista
And what tough guy line might McClane utter in a signature sort of way? E.g.,
Something tells me the Net's no longer neutral.
Time to live? Ten seconds, you son of a bitch.
I'm going to tear you a new open source.
Markets are conversations...and I speak fluent Bullet.
Cathedral? Bazaar? It all makes the same beautiful, beautiful rubble.
[Tags: movies contest bruce_willis]
Posted by self at 01:38 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
May 25, 2006
New issue of WordWays
The print-only journal for crazed logophiles, WordWays, has a new issue out. In it are such delights as:
Jeff Grant updates the explanations of some of the words in his 10x10 word square, which includes the "word" "Alan Browne," an American Bank consultant listed in the 1988-89 Who's Who in America. Sorry, Jeff, it still seems like cheating to me.
Eric Chaikin finds a sentence in Entertainment Weekly that inadvertently contains all the letters of the alphabet in just 61 letters. Thank goodness for Joaquin Phoenix!
Anil invents anacrograms: "Take the initial letter of each word in a common phrase, saying or longer quote, rearrange them and form a word or phrase that summarises or relates to it." He calculates the fequencies of first letters in Dickens, Melville, Twain and Ian Watson.
Mike Keith reports on the results of a program he wrote to arrange the 100 tiles in Scrabble into four 5x5 double word squares (i.e., different words going across and down), using only words accepted in Scrabble. In twenty hours, his computer found 121.
Rex Gooch invents and finds antidextrous words, i.e., a word whose first half contains letters only from the second half of the alphabet, and whose second half contains letters only from the first half. E.g., unsuppliable, unoutspeakable, pronunciable, and sunnyside egg. Examples of ambidextrous words include bladder-snout and ambidextrous itself.
Jeremy Morse analyzes the frequency with which letters are not included in the 25,000 crosswords run in the London Daily Telegraph since 1925.
A Ross Eckler, the editor, has a fun piece on books about words we need or words we don't need. "Blurb" comes from a 1914 book on words we need. "Ucalegon" — "a neighbor whose house is on fire" — is a word from Webster's Second Unabridged that we could probably replace with "Hey, get out of your freaking house! It's on fire!"
WordWays so needs to be a blog! [Tags: wordways linguistics puzzles]
Posted by self at 10:51 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 16, 2006
Bogus Contest: Punny, content-free headline
Undoubtedly because everything I brought with me, including the inside of a toothpaste tube, got soaked last night as I walked the few blocks from the train station to the Syndicate conference, I woke up this morning with a punny headline in my freshly-rinsed brain. Your job is to come up with a news item for which it would be appropriate:
As always, the prize consists of winning. [Tags: puzzles syndicate]
Posted by self at 07:52 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 15, 2006
Puzzle: An apples
Can you find a meaningful, non-weird English sentence that contains the two consecutive words "an apples" without capitalizing "apple" or adding an apostrophe? Hint: It involves a cliché.
The answer is in the firstthird comment. [Tags: puzzles]
Posted by self at 06:57 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
April 01, 2006
Order of Magnitude Quiz: Indian highway deaths
Here is a particularly grim puzzle question: How many people are killed in traffic accidents per day in India? Your aim is to get within an order of magnitude of the answer. (Source)
The answer is in the first comment to this post. [Tags: quiz puzzle statistics india]
Posted by self at 09:21 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 31, 2005
Auto-contradictory words
I've long been amused by words that mean their opposite. E.g., "cleave" can mean to cling to or to cut apart. And "dust" can mean to remove dust or, as when dusting for fingerprints, to deposit dust.
Yesterday, an odd almost-example of one occurred to me.
Imagine a mob intent on no good has formed. It's going to loot and pillage. But a preacher gets their attention. They stop mobbing and start listening. The preacher delivers the greatest anti-violence sermon ever. Afterwards, the crowd reformed.
Yeah, it's too contextual to make it onto the list of auto-contradictory words (AKA autoantonyms). But I thought I'd mention it. [Tags: autoantonyms wordplay]
Posted by self at 09:17 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
Order of Magnitude Quiz: In the air
Julian Bond wonders how many people are flying in airplanes at any one time. You win if you guess the answer within one order of magnitude. Julian's guess is one million. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer... [Tag: OrderOfMagnitudeQuiz]
Posted by self at 09:52 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
Order of Magnitude Quiz: Parking Meters
According to The Boston Globe, how many times a year does the average downtown Boston parking meter require repair? You win if you get within an order of magnitude of the answer.
The answer is in the first comment to this post. [Tag: OrderOfMagnitudeQuiz]
Posted by self at 12:00 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack