Fetch the compass. Bleach the pith helmet. We’re entering virgin jungle this week, exploring the volcanic wilds of Papua’s Bismarck Archipelago, making clues where no setter has set foot before. Some nineteen islands make up the chain in the West Pacific, and below are nine of the more exotic in name, hand-picked for clueing: BAGABAG BALUAN [...]
Most similes are as old as the hills. Dull as ditch water. Flat as a pancake. Our quest this week is to energise the idiom, and dream up dynamic and updated versions of the old like-a and as-a classics. Poor as a church mouse? Try poor as a Ponzi investor. Or poor as an Aussie [...]
Time feels right for a spot of punnery. Your challenge is to dip into the arts – movies and books, TV and music – and match-make an example of ‘comp-art-ability’. That’s the fancy word, but it’s really just low humour, pairing up one famous artist, writer, actor, musician, poet etc with another person’s work, so [...]
I call this game close magic, where a well-known name can be turned into a single word with a quick wiggle of the wrist. The secret to the wiggle lies in letter manipulation, one letter per name, and then a speedy translation into a SINGLE WORD. Watch this: YOKO ONO = yoke one = ox [...]
Fresh from my folly on the Franklin River, I feel the urge to keep going with the flow, using rivers for this week’s Brainstorm. Less puns this time, and more tectonics. Your goal is to create an island – or hidden word – when placing two familiar rivers beside each other. For instance, Franklin/Thames makes LINT, [...]
When James Bond did the rounds of Copenhagen, at least in the guise of For Your Eyes Only, the Danes translated the movie as Agent 007: Strict Confidence. In Japan, when The Horse Whisperer hit town in 1998, the billboards advertised Held By Wind in Montana, while the French mangled Jaws back in the 70s with [...]
Lewis Carroll called them laddergrams, where one letter per step sees you move from CAT to DOG, for example: CAT-COT-DOT-DOG Or WARM to COLD in four steps: WARM-WARD-CARD-CORD-COLD Or BLACK to WHITE in eight: BLACK-SLACK-SHACK-SHARK-SHARE-SHALE-WHALE-WHILE-WHITE Get the hang? Anyway, Lewis curled his toes a century ago, so we need to upgrade the man’s ladders. Think [...]
SCARLET, you could say, is the colour of CLARETS. EARTH is where the human HEART beats. LUST besets a SLUT. While ANGERED means ENRAGED. That’s the Brainstorm this week. To define a word that includes its anagram. Let’s try to steer clear of phrases (WOMAN HITLER as MOTHER-IN-LAW springs to mind, unkindly – and all [...]
Fifi Trixibelle Geldof has a name only slightly more bizarre than her sister, Peaches. And dare we mention Sage Moonblood Stallone or Kal-El Cage? Meanwhile Dweezil Zappa is still cranking out rock riffs, almost twenty years after losing his dad, Frank. Though lately Zowie Bowie directs films (including the recent Moon) under the genteel alias [...]
Two months ago, we did reindeers. This time round, going up a brow or two, we turn our focus to another notable nine – the Muses. You know these inspiring sisters by heart, I’m sure: Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry Clio, history Erato, lyric poetry (as opposed to net porn) Euterpe, music Melpomene, tragedy [...]