Happy New Year, everyone. I hope that 2011 will be a great year for us all.
Here's something a little different this week. I thought I'd have a bit of fun playing with words.
Through the 1970's and 80's, I consistently purchased a puzzle publication called Games Magazine. Though it has disappeared from newsstands at least once since its original launch, it was eventually bought out and republished under its new ownership, and still appears at larger book stores and magazine vendors. I never did renew my own subscription (nor my trust in them), which had been paid in advance for a two-year period, just days before it went bankrupt that first time.
A semi-regular feature was devoted to what they call "Wacky Wordies." Familiar names, phrases and everyday words are configured in an unusual way so that you can read the solution by thinking outside of the box. For example:
klat would be "back talk" since it's the word "talk" written backwards.
ssssssssss match would be "tennis match" (10 s match)
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke would be "smokestack"
I've created six of this sort of wordplay below. In order to make it a bit easier, the background image* of each gives an added hint as to what the answer might be. Only the coloured letters with black outlines are the actual puzzle words to consider. Anything else is part of the hint. Consider the positioning and quantity of letters in some cases. They may help you to come to the solution.
It's all just for fun but for this purpose, I will turn on the moderation feature just for a few days so that your comments/guesses will not show publicly until all of the answers are in. I'll announce names and link to the blogs of those who get all 6 correct (or equally clever) answers. I'll reveal all comments after a few days and I'll post the correct responses on Wednesday's post along with the Posts of the Week. I'm going to be away from my computer for a few days so that I can help a friend pack up her house but I'll be around to visit your blogs after that.
*All background images are either from copyright-free sites or are my own photographs or graphics.
Remember that moderation is on only for a few days. Your comments will appear after a few days, and as usual after that.
