Archive for February, 2007

Reel 2 Reel Turkeys

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

The link is birds. Katharine Hepburn: Maltese Falcon Julia Roberts: Pelican Brief Eric Bana: Black Hawk Down Robert Redford: Legal Eagles Uma Thurman: Batman & Robin To wrap up the challenge, can you name two more movies that not only feature birds in their title, but also feature lead actors with bird surnames? One surname [...]

Reel 2 Reel 2

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

So what’s the movie link [see previous post] between today’s extended list? Katharine Hepburn Julia Roberts Eric Bana Robert Redford Uma Thurman Still no takers. Be the first to spot the connection.

Reel 2 Reel

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Every few days I’ll be adding to a list of film stars. Your challenge is to work out the link that exists between the actors – before the set grows too large. As a clue, the answer won’t rely on each actor’s personal details so much as what films they have appeared in. To start [...]

Celebrity Forum II

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

A peculiar echo runs through this list – the answers to last week’s Celebrity Forum: LLOYD COLE & DIDO OVID DAVID DALE ADAM DALE DAVID LLOYD DAVID VILLA EMILY COX EMMA CALVE Fossicking the Net, I also found MALCOLM BOYD (the so-called Espresso Priest of gay rights), Australian singer/songwriter ALEX LLOYD, DAVID MALCOLM (the Chief [...]

Celebrity Forum

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

MILLI VANILLI, MOLLY MELDRUM, ERIC IDLE and CLEO LAINE go oh-so close to boasting only Roman numberals as their consonants. In all four cases, the celebs are betrayed by a lousy letter. To give you a brain strain over the weekend, can you identify the clued names below, all of whom possess Roman numerals – [...]

QQQ2

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Quaint was my very faint clue. Each name – ADA LOVELACE, LADY DI, LEE IACOCCA, VLADE DIVAC and MALCOLM X – owns Roman numerals as its only consonants. ADA LOVELACE, as seen here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace on Wiki, has a special place in both computing and puzzling. Only true verbal tragics will relish the fact that all-Roman [...]

Quigley’s Quaint Quintet

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

American crossword maestro, Brendan Emmett Quigley is evasively wriggly when it comes to themes. In a recent puzzle, published within the spoof rag The Onion, BEQ featured the following key entries: Ada Lovelace – reputedly the world’s first computer programmer Lady Di Ex-Ford exec, Lee Iacocca Slavic Laker star, Vlade Divac and civil rights activist [...]

Hazy Definitions 4

Monday, February 12th, 2007

To wrap up the series of Hazy Definitions, here’s a treble. This week’s challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use all three in casual conversation: velarise: to produce with velar articulation [and velar, as we know, describes the tongue curled toward - or touching - the soft palate] So what is a [...]

Hazy Definitions 3

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

Blackman’s potatoes are also known as early Nancy. At least that’s the insight the Macquarie blindly provided the hapless gardener. Deeper lost I went looking for early Nancy, and order was restored: a wildflower of the lily family found throughout Australia, the white flower of which has a purple band around the base of each [...]

Hazy Definitions 2

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Fear not mariners, SIAL is not a misspelt SAIL but a term from geology – at least I think. A trip to the dictionary revealed the following Hazy Definition: sial: a grantie layer of lithosphere Care to trump this Hazy Definition? Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about blackman’s potatoes.