Cassowary Crossing

Explain why 50 in 09 reversed
Is a code by which our land is cursed.
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB176 SOLUTION: Island (think about it)

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 […]

What’s the common six-letter word where la is the middle, is the beginning and the end?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB175 SOLUTION: All require an exclamation mark

What links the board game Sorry, the Beatles song Help, the pop band Wham, the quiz show Jeopardy, the search engine Yahoo, the celeb magazine OK and the three musicals Moulin Rouge, Oklahoma and Keating?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB174 SOLUTION: Release, unleash

LEAS lies in the same position
In two verbs sharing their definition.
Naming both is now your mission.
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB173 SOLUTION: Perturb (Pert/Brut)

What seven-letter verb starts with a shampoo brand and ends with a reversed aftershave?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB172 SOLUTION: Nagoya, de la Hoya, Sawyer, Goya, La Toya, destroyer, Moya, coir, Boyer, foyer, lawyer

Now and then, making puzzles, I flummox myself.
Typically this happens when I return to a stash of older puzzles, their answers lost or adrift in the scrimmage – and I can’t solve them!
Here on this blog, back in November, I ran a mystery list of words, beseeching passersby for the hidden link. That same list […]

What Japanese city, Latino boxer, literary rascal, deaf painter, musical Jackson, potent warship, Latino tennis star, mat material, lecture sponsor, hotel space and Kennedy vocation all rhyme with each other?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB171 SOLUTION: Violence, restful, funeral, enormity, inroads, honorees, antagonist, saintliness, adultery, commendation

Antigrams are contrary anagrams. UNITE, for instance, hides UNTIE. While FORTY-FIVE hides OVER FIFTY.
This week you have ten more to unravel. (And feel free to zap along any of your own original suggestions too. These can get addictive.) With the answer’s initial supplied, can you figure out the words that inspired each antigram here?
NICE LOVE […]

To make its own synonym with minimal preparing,
What word can shed a spelt-out compass bearing?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB169 SOLUTION: Goldfinger, brass knuckles, silver tongue, tin ear, Lead Belly, Nickelback, steel nerves, copperhead, iron lung