Interviewing Ronald Wilson Reagan

As a rule, VIPs are likely to be interviewed only by other equal or lesser VIPs. But there is an even stronger rule, little known and indubitably of less consequence, that only VUPs are ever observed interviewing a Big Name in the literal sense, and like all bizarre aberrations in nature it is observed only rarely. I am not speaking of interviewing a Big Name in the figurative sense as Barbara Walters would do, which really means interviewing the actual person. No, I speak of interviewing only the Name itself, which in the present instance is composed of eleven distinct letters of the alphabet: A, D, E, G, I, L, N, O, R, S, and W. For the benefit of those who want a technical name for this kind of wordplay, the interviewee\u27s half of this interview is called a lipogram on the name RONALD WILSON REAGAN, which means that the interviewee utters no words except those which can be spelled using the alphabetical letters in his name

Dudeney\u27s Switch Puzzle

This is the tale of a quasi-mechanical word puzzle propounded by Sam Loyd, a famous British puzzler, to Henry Ernest Dudeney, another famous British puzzler, around the turn of the century. Dudeney is best known for his work in the field of mathematical recreations, but he was also interested in word curiosities, and the Switch Puzzle is one of many included in his book, The World\u27s Best Word Puzzles, published by the Daily News Publications Department, London, 1925

Logological Poetry: An Editorial

It was Dmitri Borgmann who put the word logology into circulation. Before Language on Vacation, his first book, was published, he wrote to me: I don\u27t believe the word \u27logology\u27 has ever appeared in a book devoted to words or puzzles. I dug it out of the unabridged Oxford while searching for a suitable name for my activity

The Alphabet Puzzle

For the Alphabet Puzzle, you need eight nickels, eight pennies and eight dimes, and a smooth surface to slide them on. The coins, all touching, must be lined up in eight nickel-penny-dime sets: NPDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPDNPD

A Logological Symbol for the Cause of Peace

Now that the human race has the power to blacken this planet to a cinder, it has at last become obvious that every sane person has a vital interest in the cause of peace. By what process peace can be achieved is the problem confronting the whole world; but - however it may or may not be done - it is at least possible that a widely acceptable symbol could play a crucial role in the process

Kickshaws

A collection of linguistic kickshaws

A Whitman Echo

Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!Not today is to justify me and answer what I am for.But you, a new breed, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known,Arouse! for you must justify me

On Composing Palindromic Poetry

Many years ago, Leigh Mercer constructed several dictionaries to aid the aspiring palindromist. In these dictionaries, he listed various words which contain interior reversals; for example, PRETTIFY contains the word FITTER. The value of such dictionaries lies in the arrangements of the words for quick and easy access; one very useful method is to arrange all the words in reverse alphabetical order, sorted out by the number of hanging letters they contain. Thus, Y FITTER P, with a single hanging letter in front, appears toward the end of one dictionary. A second dictionary lists reversed words with double hanging letters, and a third, words with multiple hanging letters

The Nonpattern Sonnet Pathetique

How long can a nonpattern composition -- that is, one with no repeated words -- be? I\u27m sure we would all like to know, but the answer would not be interesting unless the writer religiously abstained from smuggling in long strings of adjectives or any other form of deliberate prolixity. I have taken the following sonnet which I wrote in 1941, and tried to rewrite it, staying within the sonnet form and repeating no words

Kickshaws

A collection of linguistic kickshaws