Card deck wordplay.

Card deck wordplay. A. ROSS ECKLER For the centenarian researcher, see A. Ross Eckler, Jr.Albert Ross Eckler (May 22, 1901 - March 14, 1991) served as deputy director of the United States Census Bureau from 1949 to 1965, and its director from 1965 until 1969. Morristown, New Jersey Morristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris CountyGR6. There are thirteen playing card names consisting of 52 letters: TWOTHREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN JACK QUEEN KING ACE. What sortof wordplay is possible with these? To begin with, there is thecrossword challenge--to arrange the words in a standard crossword array,in a rectangle of minimum size. Here is a 9x10 example that can possiblybe improved: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This array can be compressed using a word search format, one inwhich words are read forward or backwards, up or down, and diagonally.In the first 7x7 array, all words are connected (share a letter incommon with at least one neighbor); in the second 7x6 array, JACK-KINGand SIX are separated from the others. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Take the nineteen different letters and place them on squares on anextended checkerboard checkerboardthe pattern of a chess or draft board; used in many circumstances to display the results of mixing a specific number of variables. The variables are listed in columns designated along the horizontal border and the same or different variables in lines along the vertical in such a way that one can trace out the thirteenwords using chess moves. It turns out to be impossible to do it usingking's move, but is just barely possible using queen's move. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Note that queen's move can accommodate a maximum of eightletters leading into a given letter, and all eight are needed for both I(GKNSEVXF) and E (INSCRUTV); furthermore, three lead-in letters arecommon to both E and I (NSV NSV Net Sales ValueNSV Nullsoft Streaming VideoNSV Noise Shaped Video (Sony)NSV No-Scalpel Vasectomy (Chinese puncture technique)NSV Nationalistische Studentenvereniging ), one fewer than the maximum possible. The construction of a planar A technique developed by Fairchild Instruments that creates transistor sublayers by forcing chemicals under pressure into exposed areas. Planar superseded the mesa process and was a major step toward creating the chip. network using these nineteen lettersappears to be impossible, but the one given below accommodates all thewords but TWO, which requires the crossing of a line to connect T withO. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How near are these various words to each other in logologicalspace? This can be gauged by noting the number of letters any pair ofwords have in common. By this criterion, JACK is by far +the mostisolated word, only sharing a K with KING and an AC with ACE. TWO issomewhat less so, sharing T with EIGHT, THREE, TEN and O with FOUR. SIXgoes along with FIVE, KING, EIGHT, NINE and SEVEN. In contrast, EIGHT isthe chummiest, sharing letters with ten others, ignoring only FOUR andACE. Extending the notion of chumminess chum��my?adj. chum��mi��er, chum��mi��estIntimate; friendly.chummi��ly adv. to the four suit names, CLUB isthe most isolated, sharing letters only with FOUR, QUEEN and ACE,whereas DIAMOND is the chummiest, failing to share letters only withTHREE. A word worm creates a three-dimensional measure of the distancefrom one word to another in logological space. As described in Makingthe Alphabet Dance and "Letters of the Presidents" in theNovember Word Ways, each letter is assigned a unique direction anddistance in space, and words are characterized by the sum of theirletters. Each word arrives at a different point in space, and theclosest pairs are SEVEN-TEN, FIVE-NINE and KING-FIVE, all one unit away,from each other. In contrast, the most isolated word appears to be JACK(as it was above); it is [square of 5] units away from its nearestneighbor See point sampling. , ACE. Furthermore, the two words farthest apart are JACK andEIGHT, at [square of 51] units, followed by FOUR-NINE at [square of 34].JACK is also the farthest from the origin, having traveled a distance of[square of 21] units. One can construct a directed network of these words by allowingpassage from one word to the next only if the last letter of the firstword is the same as the first letter of the second. The core of thisnetwork consists of a two-loop, EIGHT-THREE-, and an adjoiningthree-loop, EIGHT-TEN-NINE-. QUEEN, SEVEN, ACE and FIVE are beginnerwords, feeding into the core, and TWO is an ender, leading away. SIX andFOUR are isolates, with no words preceding or following them, andJACK-KING is an isolated pair. What is the shortest sequence of letters from which one can readoff the thirteen words with letters in order? There are 19 differentletters represented, and N and E appear twice in a word, so that atleast 21 letters are needed. However, HT is in EIGHT and TH in THREE, soa second T is needed, making 22 letters. Furthermore, one cannot get bywith only two Es and two Ns because either SEVEN or NINE is notpermitted, so one must add another E, making 23 letters. Finally NGfollows I (in KING), and H follows G (in EIGHT), but H must be followedby two Es (in THREE) and N must be preceded by two Es (in SEVEN). Thisproblem can be solved by adding a third N or a third E, making 24letters. The final sequence (one of many possible) is QFJACKSTWOUENINVGHRENEXT The thirteen words with 52 letters can be efficiently packed in a13x4 rectangle in many different ways. In the array below, a furthercondition was imposed: each word has a letter in common with the wordabove and beneath it, with one exception (SIX). Can a perfect rectanglebe found? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Spoonerisms for Kids Although Shel Silverstein Noun 1. Shel Silverstein - United States poet and cartoonist remembered for his stories and poems for children (1932-1999)Shelby Silverstein, Silverstein died in 1999, his Runny run��ny?adj. run��ni��er, run��ni��estInclined to run or flow: runny icing; a runny nose.runnyAdjective[-nier, -niest Babbitt." ABilly Sook (HarperCollins, hardcover, $17.99, was publishedpost-humorously this past March. The book consists of 42 spooneristicnonsense verses lines made by taking any words which occur, but especially certain words which it is desired to recollect, and arranging them without reference to anything but the measure, so that the rhythm of the lines may aid in recalling the remembrance of the words.See also: Nonsense for children, accompanied by the author'scharacteristic line drawings. The eponymous e��pon��y��mous?adj.Of, relating to, or constituting an eponym.[From Greek epnumos; see eponym. creature "bakes atath," attempts a "jig jig,dance of English origin that is performed also in Ireland and Scotland. It is usually a lively dance, performed by one or more persons, with quick and irregular steps. When the jig was introduced to the United States, it was often danced in minstrel shows. bump," wears a "howboycat," and so on. Although the jackets of many children's booksspecify an age range, this one does not. The intended audience,presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. , is the early reader. Confronted with all the cute animalpictures, an eight-year-old would likely dismiss this title as "abook for babies." Children love wordplay and nonsense, and whenabsurdities provoke laughter, that indicates that they grasp themeanings of words and their relationship to reality. One assumes thatkids will simultaneously be entertained and improve their literacy asthey tease out tease?v. teased, teas��ing, teas��esv.tr.1. To annoy or pester; vex.2. To make fun of; mock playfully.3. the meanings of "hassgropper," "beltedmutter mutter - To quietly enter a command not meant for the ears, eyes, or fingers of ordinary mortals. Often used in "mutter an incantation".See also wizard. ," and "nick your pose." Some, however, may be confused by Silverstein's insistence onpreserving spellings, as when "carrot pie" becomes"parrot parrot,common name for members of the order Psittaciformes, comprising 315 species of colorful birds, pantropical in distribution, including the parakeet. Parrots have large heads and short necks, strong feet with two toes in front and two in back (facilitating cie." What are young readers--and theirparents--supposed to make of that? One of the Major Laws of Spoonerismsis that spelling is subordinate to pronunciation. Thus, the phonetic pho��net��icadj.1. Of or relating to phonetics.2. Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound. parrot kye is preferable. This approach would also teach a valuablelesson about the inconsistencies of English spelling. In addition, Iwish Silverstein had structured the book around spoonerisms that madesense, or differentiated between the meaningful and nonsense varieties.A skeptic might wonder if some youngsters will learn garbled English.Finally, the author or the editors might have appended a chapter brieflydescribing the long and glorious history of spoonerisms--or at leastmentioning the word, which is entirely absent. For a somewhat different way to combine spoonerisms with cartoons,on a more adult level, turn to "Spoonertoons 2: We're Punningfor Resident!" elsewhere in this issue.