Saturday, November 1, 2025

 WHAT THE "EL - LE"
 
GAMES/World of Puzzles 
October, 2025
Stu Agler
 
Each item below consists of two clues that lead to two words or names that are spelled the same, except the first word ends in "EL" and the second ends in "LE". 
 
1. Rind / Soccer legend 
2. Ice skater's jump / Car part 
3. Biblical brother / Competent
4. Fencing move / Fruit for a pie 
5. Broadway backer / Point of view
6. Bach contemporary / Take care of
7. Symbol of strength / Inscribed stone pillar
8. Fireplace shelf / Cloak of authority - metaphorically 
 
Answers:
 
1. PEEL - PELE
2. AXEL - AXLE
3. ABEL - ABLE
4. APPEL - APPLE 
5. ANGEL - ANGLE
6. HANDEL - HANDLE
7. STEEL - STELE
8. MANTEL - MANTLE  
 
 

DROP A LETTER - GET A NEW WORD CXXII

GAMES/World of Puzzles
October, 2025
FAMILY REUNIONS
Bob Stigger  
 
Drop one letter from each word and re-arrange the remaining letters to get eight related words.
 
1. SNIP
2. LINDA
3. PEEVE
4. TARDY
5. FINKED
6. SHERPA 
7. HORNET
8. KNEELED 

Answers:
 
1. PIN
2. NAIL
3. EPEE
4. DART
5. KNIFE
6. SPEAR
7. THORN
8. NEEDLE - -  Sharp things 

Friday, October 31, 2025

 LA Times Crossword
October 31, 2025
Wendy L. Brandes
 
What do the following words have to do with the end of Daylight Savings Time?
 
1. SUB
2. TOW
3. SINK 
 
HINT:
It has to do with added letters.
 
Answer:
 
If you add the letters HR to each clue word, you get SHRUB, THROW,  and SHRINK. Since HR is the abbreviation for "hour" - in each clue you gain an hour. And that is what you do at the end of Daylight Savings Time in the fall, by turning the clock back one hour. 

SYNONYM/ANAGRAM CCCXII

The two words in each line can be anagrammed into one - beginning with the given letter. The meanings of the anagrams are given below the clues.

1. ACE + HARD = C
2. ARC + MASS = S
3. OAT + CRAB = A
4. TEN + DAIS = I
5. RAG + BED = B 
6. TEEN + PINT = P 
7. CAR + NOISE = S 
8. DIET + TEAM = M
9. HUGE + DART = D
10. PILL + ABUSE = P 
 
Meanings of the anagrams:
1. Silent party game
2. Verbal irony
3. Circus thriller 
4. Alternate
5. Animal 
6. Remorseful
7. Plot, outline
8. Ponder
9. Offspring
10. Reasonable 
 
Answers:
 
1. CHARADE
2. SARCASM
3. ACROBAT
4. INSTEAD
5. BADGER
6. PENITENT
7. SCENARIO
8. MEDITATE
9. DAUGHTER
10. PLAUSIBLE  

SCHRODINGER'S CAT PUZZLES V

NY Times Crossword
September 5, 2013
Damon J. Gulczynski
 
Each clue has two answers - both correct - that differ by a single letter.
 
1. Belief system founded in China
2. Greek letter
3. Hard work 
4. Spread around 
5. Sign of neglect
6. Kitchen gadget
7. Flowering plant 
 
Answers:
 
1. Taoism or Maoism
2. Chi or Phi
3. Moil or Toil 
4. Scatter or Spatter 
5. Dust or Rust
6. Dicer or Ricer
7. Pansy or Tansy  

 

UNUSUAL WORDS CXXI 

Can you give a simple definition of these less-frequently-used words?

1. CAIRN
2. RUCHE  
3. NUNCIO
4. CUNEAL
5. TREFOIL 
6. DUCTILE
7. VERRUCA 
8. NAMASTE
9. BATHETIC
10. DUDGEON
 
Answers:
 
1. CAIRN - A mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark
 
2. RUCHE - A gathered up or pleated strip of fabric
 
3. NUNCIO - A Papal ambassador to a foreign government
 
4. CUNEAL - Wedge-shaped
 
5. TREFOIL - Plant of the pea family with three lobed leaves, its shape used in architectural design
 
6. DUCTILE - (of a metal) Able to drawn out into a thin wire
 
7. VERRUCA - A wart, especially a plantar wart (on the sole of the foot)
 
8. NAMASTE - An East Indian greeting - similar to "God be with you"
 
9. BATHETIC - Anticlimactic, disappointing
 
10. DUDGEON - A feeling of offense or deep resentment (often with "high") 

Thursday, October 30, 2025

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT - ARCHIVE II

"Winners" from the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Archive

1988
Like an expensive sports car, fine-tuned and well-built, Portia was sleek, shapely, and gorgeous, her red jumpsuit molding her body, which was as warm as seat covers in July, her hair as dark as new tires, her eyes flashing like bright hubcaps, and her lips as dewy as the beads of fresh rain on the hood; she was a woman who was driven - fueled by a single accelerant - and she needed a man, a man who wouldn't shift from his views, a man to steer her along the right road, a man like Alf Romeo.
Author Unknown
 
1990
Delores breezed along the surface of her life like a flat stone forever skipping across smooth water, rippling water sporadically but oblivious to it consistently, until she finally lost momentum, sank, due to an overdose of fluoride as a child which caused her to lie forever on the floor of her life as useless as an appendix and as lonely as a five-hundred-pound barbell in a steroid-free fitness center. 
Linda Vernon, Newark, CA 
 
2007
Gerald began - but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them "permanently" meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash - to pee.
Jim Gleeson, Madison, WI