Beowulf – the classical warrior-meets-monster tale – is one yarn to make the American soldier’s swag, bound for Baghdad. So too is The Odyssey – another travelogue with sword. And The Iliad, where the Trojan War of course is the major bloody episode.
Lieutenant Colonel Jason Armagost, who flew aboard USAF squadrons in 2003 during air [...]
A spot of housekeeping before this week’s posts roll out.
My ten-minute play, The Mercy Kitchen is due to run on December 20 at The Arts Centre in Melbourne, a matinee show featuring the weird, the wild and the occasionally subtle Short & Sweet Wildcard winners. Come support the fest, and let your voice be heard [...]
Melbourne Romp ran last weekend, a mix of treasure hunt, Amazing Race and puzzle. To compete, say the organisers, you need a team, a mobile and a sense of adventure, sleuthing clues around town in hope of snagging part of a 10-grand purse.
You also need an IQ above 180 to crack this final rhyme pitched [...]
For a cartoonist, Bill Leak has a miserable name. Puzzle-wise.
A few years back I devoted a Wordwit to the dual Walkley winner and resident rascal in The Australian newspaper, highlighting the fact the bloke’s name entails ILL inside BLEAK.
Bill rang the Herald at the time to complain. With a cackle. Fact is he cherished the [...]
Julia Zemiro steals false fingernails. Charles Firth swallows longnecks in North Korea and waxes poetic about hedgehogs. Meantime Graeme Blundell drops F-bombs in notable kitchens, while crime comic Shane Maloney goes to Underbelly court.
A four-taste of the frolics lurking in The Best Australian Humorous Writing, due for release later this year – unlike those Underbelly [...]
Okay, brave hearts, time to roll out three Paul clues that still leave me stumped, long after their answers have been revealed. Kudos to anyone who shed a ray of light:
Hunter requires variations = NIMROD
“If victory’s British, I’m Batman!” = TAX COLLECTOR
Pensioner’s bedside companion half unsure about support put in place = FALSE TEETH
Any insights [...]
John Halpern is a former barman, an ex-lab geek, a former bank clerk and English teacher based in Rome. But more recently, this restless spirit is a crossword setter, better known as Paul to the solving public, creating puzzles in both The Manchester Guardian, and (anonymously) for The Times.
And he’s my favourite compiler, with an [...]
Smith Magazine began the mania. Or was it Ernest Hemingway?
Old Papa was challenged to write a short story in six words. His typewriter bashed out this beauty:
For Sale, baby shoes, never used.
Then Smith picked up the thread, the literary magazine daring readers to summarise their lives in six words only. What followed was a frenzy, [...]
Who says crime doesn’t pay? Two of my short plays – both with a strong crime theme – are due to be lovingly pummeled in the coming months.
The first, The Mercy Kitchen, is slated to be staged later this year as part of the Short & Sweet Fest in Melbourne. Winning a Wildcard berth, the [...]
A classic, says Mark Twain, is a book people praise but don’t read.
War and Peace, say. Or Ulysses. Both tomes appear on a list of Most Unfinished Novels, a survey result from March last year. As do a few surprises.
In order of abandonment, according to feedback from 4000 failed British readers, the Least Concluded read:
1 [...]