Every year the Macquarie Dictionary opens its gates to let a new batch of marauding words into the Australian language. Not that you need a lexical OK for a word to exist, but it does make infomania and toad juice just a tad more official – and far more kosher to appear in a crossword […]
Last time I went to India I was a clean-livered teen, bypassing alcohol for the local orangeade called Tums Up. Next time, now that alcohol is a welcome anaesthesia, I’d be more tempted by Seagull, Sandpiper, Rosy Pelican and the rest of India’s beer flock.
The brands are bizarre. Among the brewing labels are Flying Horse, […]
Old Monk
Rosy Pelican
Australian Max
Stop me if you’ve heard the list before. Any ideas? Here’s a few more to tease the taste buds:
Black Knight
Gymkhana
Taj Mahal
That last one serves as your biggest clue. I’ll publish the list’s link in a day or two, along with the reason I make a point of jotting down such oddball trivia.
Of […]
As promised, the prayer for pisspots. I first heard the mockery in Tom Holloway’s grim drama, Don’t Say The Words, and wasn’t sure if the parody was original.
Turns out a jokey T-shirt company, and 500 other places around the net, carry the spoof. Minor variations exist around the traps but Tom nails the best […]
Like I say, addictive.
Where I should be finalising a book proposal, preparing for a freelance seminar, polishing a script, making puzzles and every other task known to a beleaguered writer, I’m Googling EQUIP and ALOFT to register 613 hits.
And then LITHE and KORMA for 558.
FETED and PRAWN gives you 505.
Just a few more than VELDT […]
Warning – this can get addictive.
Just enter two familiar five-letter words into your local Google engine, and see if you can register a minimum of hits. (Yes, I may have too much time on my hands this afternoon….)
But leaving aside Welsh violins, Inuit snow and Pashtu sweetmeats, just opt for common vocab, and only […]
Hit a phonetic wall this morning.
Bitten by a puzzle idea, I’ve spent the last while converting people like Harry Kewell and Kelly Slater into hair-reek-yule and care-lease-later respectively.
Some names, like songwriter Joe Camilleri, are ripe for the mangling. I mean joke-camel-leery almost sounds like a Page 3 headline.
But most other names defy the treatment. […]
A book of CHINGLISH came across my desk this week – Chinese signs and dishes fumbled in translation. Prime spotter and editor is Oliver Lutz Radtke, his team of snappers gathering such gems as Keep Your Legs, (appearing on an escalator) and Man and Wife Lung Slice (an eerie menu).
Here’s another small Chinglish chunk […]
Stashed away in the top drawer is my dog-eared puzzle diary, milling with ideas for crosswords, Wordwits, theme lists, anagrams and all the other verbal quirks.
Over the weekend, thumbing the book for a few ideas, I came across six words, listed together as if they belong to the one set. But what set? If there […]
If you think Hitler’s plan to annex Poland was anti-Semantic, then these malapropisms are for you:
“Did you manage to see the 16th chapel in Rome?”
“No, but I did see some geishas in Rotorua.”
“Department stores rely on excavators to get from floor to floor.”
“I was so hungry I gouged myself.”
“Global warming is a political hotdog.”
“The tutor […]