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The Allusionist

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A PODCAST ABOUT LANGUAGE
BY HELEN ZALTZMAN

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The Allusionist

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Allusionist 193. Word Play 3: Lemon Demon

April 23, 2024 The Allusionist

AJ Jacobs makes The Puzzler podcast, wrote The Puzzler book, and sometimes turns his whole life into a puzzle. He comes bearing word games, explanations of anagrams being used to precipitate wars and were key evidence in trials, tips for writing with a quill, below-the-knee insults, and tales of living constitutionally.

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In episodes, Word Play Tags history, word play, word games, puzzles, puzzling, AJ Jacobs, Bible, Constitution, USA, America, American history, US constitution, anagrams, legal, law, Alexander the Great, war, games, rebus, Louis XIII, France, French history, witch trials, prophet, English history, eye rhymes, ough, patterns, confirmation bias, pens, handwriting, quills, writing, letters, guns, second amendment, arms, insults, punishment, legs, apophenia, virtue, timocracy, satyr, ghoti, Bernard Shaw, pillory

Allusionist 92. To Err is Human

January 23, 2019 The Allusionist
A92 logo To Err is Human.jpg

If you wince when you hear someone say “a whole nother level”, “hone in on” or “right from the gecko”, here’s some bad news: you might have to get used to it. The English language is full of words and expressions that were mistakes that stuck around. Countdown’s Susie Dent holds our hands and takes us on a tour of misspellings, mishearings, scrambled letters, and bear cubs.

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In episodes Tags words, language, linguistics, education, comedy, entertainment, society & culture, arts, literature, Helen Zaltzman, etymology, lexicography, Susie Dent, Countdown, history, lexicographers, anagrams, mistakes, jerusalem artichokes, curry favour, favor, expressions, sayings, malaphors, eggcorns, bears, swearing, swears, cusses, euphemisms, zounds, gadzooks, jeepers creepers, Jiminy Cricket, arse ropes, English, errors, debt, doubt, dord, plumber, umpire, nickname, cherries, jerusalem artichoke, freelance, lick into shape, secretary, hangnail, buttonholing, shamefaced, Latin, Old English, Middle English, profanity, liripipe, liripoop

Allusionist 8: Crosswords

April 8, 2015 The Allusionist

iTUNES • RSS • MP3

Cryptic crosswords: delightful brain exercise, or the infernal taunting of the incomprehensible? Either way, crossword setter John Feetenby explains how they're made and how to solve them. Visit theallusionist.

Cryptic crosswords: delightful brain exercise, or the infernal taunting of the incomprehensible?

Either way, crossword setter John Feetenby explains how they're made and how to solve them. He reveals how he composes clues (even one for 'Zaltzman'), why crosswords reign supreme over sudoku, and why 'jacuzzi' is rarely the answer.

ADDITIONAL READING:

  • If, like me, you suck at cryptic crosswords, to start off here's Cryptic Crosswords for Dummies.

  • I'll never be able to do The Guardian's crossword, but if that's the crossword mountain you want to climb, here's the Guardian's Cryptic Crosswords for Beginners series. I can do the Telegraph crossword a bit, so here's the Telegraph's guide too.

  • This is a very handy compendium of what words mean in crosswordese.

  • Here's a summary of the differences between UK and US crosswords.

I'm aware that crosswords from other countries work differently to British ones, so do illuminate me about your own local crossword practices.

RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
waterbrash

Say hi at facebook.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow, and come back in a fortnight for the next episode.

- HZ

CREDITS

  • John Feetenby's crosswords appear every Sunday in one of Britain's major newspapers. He is @feexby on Twitter and his website is feexby.com, via which you can find his own podcasts.

  • This episode was presented and produced by me, Helen Zaltzman.

MUSIC:

  • 'Allusionist Theme' - Martin Austwick

  • 'I don't Get It' - Cowboy Junkies

  • 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' - The Animals

In episodes Tags words, puzzles, crosswords, crossword puzzles, cryptic, clues, anagrams, newspapers, waterbrash, junk, The Tasting Room, confusion, vocabulary, synonyms, puns, etymology, jokes, language, Google, general knowledge, grids, crossword setting, crossword compiling, puzzling, double meaning, sudoku, ZZ Top, em, en
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Creative Commons Licence
The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.