The missing word puzzle

This is a short passage from a newspaper article. The passage is about an object. The name of the object (which, as it is used here, is only half of the whole name) has been left out from all the places where it appears in the original article. Can you find out what it is?

"This is my own ********** ," says Olivér Nagy, showing me the inscription 'Olivér's **********'. I use this at competitions. Each contestant brings his own ********** after he has adjusted the tightness of the springs and the lubricant to fit his own hands. We use ordinary shop-bought **********, which we take apart and then file the internal mechanism. There are people who colour them, adding purple or pink sides, which they can recognize during a fast solve. I've changed nearly everything in mine - the radiuses, the spring, the screws and the washers - so it's well adjusted."

(The number of stars in the missing word does NOT correspond with the number of letters.)

Learning by heart: A poem by Dylan Thomas

This poem was my favourite when I was at university. I think I liked it at the time because I didn't need a thick thesaurus to look up every second word and after a few readings I could recite most of it by heart (probably with pauses and a few mistakes but still somehow). Now that I have found it again I am quite surprised just how beautiful it really is. This time, I will make a point of learning it well.

Dylan Thomas: In My Craft or Sullen Art

In my craft or sullen art

Exercised in the still night

When only the moon rages

And the lovers lie abed

With all their griefs in their arms,

I labour by singing light

Not for ambition or bread

Or the strut and trade of charms

On the ivory stages

But for the common wages

Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart

From the raging moon I write

On these spindrift pages

Nor for the towering dead

With their nightingales and psalms

But for the lovers, their arms

Round the griefs of the ages,

Who pay no praise or wages

Nor heed my craft or art.

You can listen to Dylan Thomas reading this poem here.

A past perfect drink

I have found a poem which I quite like. It is on a BBC site called Poetry: Out Loud (unfortunately no longer updated). The title of the poem is "On the Booze" and it is read by the poet John Hegley himself. A few notes for learners of English:

- The word 'booze' means alcoholic drink.
- The expression 'blew her lid' means that the person got really angry.
- 'Lather' is the foam that soaps and detergents make.
- The word 'blinking' in the poem is used as a swear word, similar to 'bloody'.
- The adjective 'obnoxious' is a synonym of annoying or offensive.
- A 'half' is a measure of drink, usually of beer, and equals the half of a pint.


Another site with good poems read aloud can be found here.

The cowboy the coffee and the coughs

Here are the new puzzles:

1. A cowboy rides into town on Friday. He stays for one night and then rides out of town on Friday. How come?



















(picture from here)


2. Yesterday, I dropped my sugar cube in my coffee and a minute later I lifted it out intact. How come?










(picture from here)


Now, I have to get back to my weekly puzzle: how to get rid of my irritating, incessant coughs?