Cat Power & Snoop Dogg, happy again

Here’s a creative challenge. Yesterday’s twitter puzzle combined a fantastical musical duo along with a song they should cover:

• Brian May & The Decemberists, “A Thousand Years”
• Cat Power & Snoop Dogg, “Singin’ in the Rain”
• Lorde & James Taylor, “Sharp Dressed Man”
• Prince & John Popper, “It’s Good To Be King”The gimmick is: each artist pair references a well-known phrase or name, which is clued by the song. (May-December relationships, “It’s raining cats and dogs”, Lord and Taylor department store, The Prince and the Pauper.)

Your challenge: come up with another phrase that can fit in this set and submit it here. I’ll post my 3 favorites in the next Dispatch.

Zomboid and other new SCRABBLE words

‘Ew’ and other Words Added to the Scrabble Dictionary 2018 : Zomboid

Impress your friends and annoy your relatives with these recent additions.

Merriam-WebsterEditors of Merriam-Webster

The latest cohort of words have entered the Scrabble Dictionary. Memorize them now before your friends do.

The Language of the Lake puzzle

Can you solve it? The language of the lake puzzle

A challenge for cunning linguists

The GuardianAlex Bellos

Language puzzles fascinate me. This one, published in The Guardian, comes from the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. Mä hach’a challwawa challwataxa.

Veteran claims he decoded identity of 'D.B. Cooper' from 1971 hijacking

Wheatfield veteran claims he decoded identity of ‘D.B. Cooper’ from 1971 hijacking

Rick Sherwood, a 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran, was asked to decode a series of six encrypted letters, written in 1971 by "D.B. Cooper," who parachuted from a hijacked plane with $200,000 in ransom money.

Chicago TribuneJerry Davich

Rick Sherwood, a 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran, was asked to decode a series of six encrypted letters, written in 1971 by famed villain D.B. Cooper, who parachuted from a hijacked plane with $200,000 in ransom money. “The Army drilled Morse Code and other codes into my head, and I’ve never forgotten them. I just never thought I’d have to use it again.”

Ten Words

Ten Words

A very cool, very simple new game from my friend Max Wohghiren. Choose one of two letter to fill a grid with as many words as possible. Free to play.

Solution to the previous Puzzler