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Explaining the seafaring origins of some common words, figures of speech, and everyday expressions, like "toe the line" and "scuttlebutt".
site exerpt
Nautical Terms in Common Usage The most common method of punishment aboard ship was flogging. The unfortunate sailor was tied to a grating, a mast or over the barrel of a deck cannon. To Know the Ropes There was miles and miles of cordage in...Featuring a collection of madlib stories and poetry.
http://madlibs.freeservers.com/
Article that lists some of the more amusing phobias, like arachibutyrophobia -- the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
http://www.geocities.com/nallen20/FunnyPhobias.txt
Challenging word jumbles posted every week.
http://www.wirelesspower.com/
A collection of links to web pages about palindromes -- phrases that spell the same forwards as backwards, like "Able was I ere I saw Elba".
http://www.palindromes.org/
A large collection of palindromes, focusing on palindromic single sentences (spelling the same forwards and backwards). Submissions welcome.
http://www.mockok.com/
Enter a sentence to have it translated from English to five different languages and back. The result is often funny; nothing like the original sentence.
http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/
Translate these arrangements of letters, numbers and/or symbols into a familiar phrase, saying, or cliché.
http://www.cyg.net/~ddoctor/
Crack the ciphers, send a coded message, and find out what goes on in the minds of code-breakers.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/decoding/
Creating interactive stories from user inputs. Possibility to add a dialect; also different categories and polls.
http://www.elibs.com/
Choose from several puzzles created just for kids. New puzzles each month.
http://www.kidcrosswords.com/
A selection of online crossword puzzles sorted by difficulty.
http://iteslj.org/cw/
Cryptic and easy crosswords, fiendish word games, the history of crosswords, and scrabble and behind the scenes at Countdown.
http://www.askoxford.com/wordgames/?view=uk