Making the alphabet dance: recreational wordplay

306 Pages·2001·10.81 MB·English

by  Ross ECKLER

‘One of the most Important wordplay books of the twentieth century’ Verlmtun
MAKING
k
DANCE
Recreational Wordplay
ROSS EC KLEK

ROSS ECKLER
MAKING THE
ALPHABET
DANCE

ROSS ECKLER
MAKING THE
ALPHABET
DANCE
R E C R E A T I ON A L WOR DP L AY
M A C M I L L A N
First published 1997 by St Martin’s Griffin, New York
First published in Great Britain 2001 by Macmillan
an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Ltd
25 Eccleston Place, London SWlW 9NF
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.macmillan.com
ISBN 0333 90334 X
Copyright © A. Ross Eckler 1996
The right of Ross Eckler to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized
act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal
prosecution and civil claims for damages.
135798642
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Mackays of Chatham pic, Chatham, Kent
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,
or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
To
DMITRI BORGMANN
(1927-1985)
the father of logology
ON TRIMMING BRAD
The barber’s a BANDIT. GRIM NORM,
Whenever he runs true to form,
Charges Brad fifty bucks at the door.
When it comes down to BIRD-NAMING, “MORT”
Is Norm’s name for his raven, whose forte
Is to croak from his perch “Nevermore.”
Norm’ll frequently BRING ARM TO MIND—
Brad hears him complain “Life’s unkind!
From fingers to shoulder I’m sore!”
What Brad gets every MORNING: BAD TRIM
(The light in Norm’s shop is too dim).
Bad hair days are hard to ignore!
—^Ross Eckler

CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XVI I
INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN GARDNER xix
ONE FORBIDDEN LEHERS, OBLIGATORY UTTERS
11 LIPOGRAMS 2
1 2 VOWEL LANGUAGE 7
13 CONSONANTAL CHARACTERIZATION 12
14 ACROSTICS 13
15 TEXT-DETERMINED OBLIGATORY OR FORBIDDEN
LETTERS 16
16 TELEPHONE WORDS AND POLYPHONIC CIPHERS 20
1 7 WORD DICE 23
18 IS Q ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY U? 25
TWO LEHER PAHERNS AND DISTRIBUTIONS
21 PALINDROMES 30
22 TAUTONYMS 36
23 SWITCH WORDS 38
24 WORD GRAPHS 41
25 WORD TILES 46
26 ISOGRAMS 49
27 PANGRAMS 5 1
28 THE PANGRAMMATIC WINDOW 57
29 LETTER DISTRIBUTIONS 59
THREE WORD FRAGMENTS
31 BIGRAMS, TRIGRAMS, TETRAGRAMS 64
32 CONSECUTIVE IDENTICAL LETTERS 71
VIII Making the Alphabet Dance
33 CADENCES 73
34 LETTERS ANYWHERE IN THE WORD 74
35 ANCHORED LETTERS 78
36 INTERNAL PALINDROMES AND TAUTONYMS 8 1
FOUR TRANSFORMING ONE WORD INTO ANOTHER
41 INSERTIONS AND DELETIONS 87
42 FROM LADDERS TO WORD NETWORKS 92
43 A MATHEMATICAL DIGRESSION: THE
STRUCTURE OF WORD NETWORKS ■ 98
44 FROM STRINGS AND RINGS TO DIRECTED
NETWORKS 1 07
45 HALF-OVERLAPPING DIRECTED NETWORKS
AND WORD FRAGS 1 1 5
46 TRANSPOSITIONS 1 1 9
47 SPECIAL TRANSPOSITIONS 1 35
48 TRANSPOSITIONS OF PHRASES AND TEXT 138
49 TRANSDELETIONS AND TRANSADDITIONS 1 44
FIVE i(ALPHABETICAL ORDER AND SCORING
51 THE LAST WORD 152
52 WORDS CONTAINING ADJACENT
ALPHABETICAL LETTERS 1 54
53 A-TO-Z WORD LISTS 1 59
54 HOMONYMS OF THE ALPHABET 161
55 WORDS CLASSIFIED BY ALPHABETIC
PROPERTIES 1 64
56 LETTER-SHIFTS, SHIFTGRAMS, COLLINEAR
WORDS 1 73
57 SCRAMBLED ALPHABETS 1 79
58 LETTER-SCORING 1 83
59 WORD BALANCE 1 86
SIX WORD GROUPS
61 WORD SQUARES 1 88
62 VARIATIONS ON THE SQUARE 1 98
63 PARTIALLY OVERLAPPING WORD GROUPS 203