I truly believe that we who are riding the planet today have more of a fascination with and skill in word games and letter puzzles than did our ancestors. Look at the plethora of crossword puzzles, word scrambles and pyramids in our newspapers and magazines. And look at the mailbags of letter play that I receive regularly:
Dear Mr. Lederer: Maybe you can help us. There is a riddle that has been in our family’s possession for 60 years, and we haven’t solved it. We are sending it to you in hopes that you can come up with the answer. Fill the five blanks with four-letter words that each use the same four letters in a different order:
A – – – – old lady, on – – – – bent,
Put on her – – – -, and away she went.
“- – – -, my son,” she was heard to say.
“What shall we do to – – – – today?”
That’s the riddle that has been handed down for three generations. If you can, please send us the answer.
— Cristy Athan, for the Athan Family, San Diego
This is the kind of challenge that stirs my logological blood. I love anagrams, and when the poser has been passed down the generations of a family for 60 years and remains unsolved, the puzzle becomes all the more intriguing. At the end of today’s installment you’ll find the answer that I was able to conjure up for the Athan family. But before you peek, please try your own mind and hand at the challenge.
Dear Mr. Lederer: If you’re really bored sometime, you could try the following word game. The rules are simple: create the longest sentence you can using only words that all start with the same letter. The sentence must make reasonable grammatical sense. The same word cannot be used more than once; and lists of nouns, adjectives, etc. are barred, e.g., “Sam saw …” and then presenting a hundred animals whose names start with s).
My best effort so far, using T, is this 41-word sentence: “Typically, tactful Tony, too, took tedious time trying to transmit the top ten traditional, though terrifically trendy, tunes toward these twenty totally trustworthy Temple, Texas, town troubadours that tolerated those twelve trying Tasmanian travelers toting thirty thoroughly tenderized Thanksgiving turkey tongues.”
With a little more effort I’m sure I could expand the above to maybe 50 words, but contrary to what you’re probably thinking at the moment, I actually do have a life.
— Phil Pryde, SDSU
Bravo, Phil, on your extended high-wire act of alliteration — more than 40 words that begin with the same consonant and that form a readable sentence. In fact, you are the most alliterate reader I’ve ever encountered. Your sentence suits me to a T and demonstrates that you do indeed have a life, a life of language.
Dear Mr. Lederer: I love word etymology and puzzles. Here is one of my favorites. Hopefully, you haven’t seen it, and I can stump you. Here is a sentence, that when properly punctuated, is grammatically correct: “Mary where John had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher’s approval Mary would have been correct.”
— Mike Langford, San Diego
Thanks, Mike, for sharing your sentence, which, when properly punctuated, makes sense, even though the word had appears 11 times in a row. Two students, Mary and John, have written almost the same statement, but Mary has used the past perfect verb had had, while John has employed the simple past tense, had. Now the sentence reads:
Mary, where John had had “had,” had had “had had”; had “had had” had the teacher’s approval, Mary would have been correct.
To conclude this letter-perfect column, here’s my solution to the Athan family riddle:
A VILE old lady, on EVIL bent,
Put on her VEIL and away she went.
“LEVI, my son,” she was heard to say.
“What shall we do to LIVE today?”
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com