March 31–April 4
Recall that the answer to a hink pink clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is one syllable long.
Example: Clue—I have a hink pink for feline headwear. Answer—cat hat
The answer to a hinky pinky clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is two syllables long.
Example: Clue—I have a hinky pinky for a careful learner. Answer—prudent student
The answer to a hinkity pinkity clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is three syllables long.
Example: Clue—I have a hinkyity pinkity for an unsolved problem about the past. Answer—history mystery
During spring break, I thought of this hinkity pinkity clue:
A marine mammal’s excessive pride
To earn the extra credit, give the answer.
March 17–21
To earn the extra credit, solve this Connections puzzle and turn in a screenshot to prove it.
March 10–14
This week, many of the juniors and seniors will be departing on their trip to Washington, D. C., where they’ll learn about the history and government of the United States. Here is a wordplay challenge connected with this:
Consider the postal abbreviations for the 50 US states (CA, NV, HI, OR) and the initials of the 45 people who have served as president (GW, TR, AL, FDR). Using only these sets of letters, join them together to form the longest word or phrase you can. For example, Barack Obama’s initials followed by the postal abbreviation for Illinois forms the word BOIL.
To earn the extra credit, form a word or phrase that’s at least six letters long.
You may either use or ignore the middle initials of presidents. For example, Lyndon B. Johnson could provide you with LJ or LBJ.
March 3–7
The students in choir will be attending the Pacific Union College music festival later this week, forming a giant SUPER CHOIR with other school choirs from all over.
Beginning with the word CHOIR, change one letter at a time—always forming a valid word each time you change a letter—until you form the word SUPER.
Example: DOG to CAT
DOG > DOT > COT > CAT
To earn the extra credit, turn in a sequence of words that will transform CHOIR into SUPER.
Just a reminder: It is very easy to do a Google search for something like “word ladder solver” and find tools that use the power of computers and large databases of words to solve word ladder puzzles almost instantaneously. I trust that you won’t use a word ladder solver, since that would go against the spirit of this wordplay challenge.
February 24–28
Correctly complete this mini-crossword to earn the extra credit.
February 17–21
Each phrase below hides something, and the things hidden in each phrase fit together as a set. To earn the extra credit, explain what is hidden in each phrase.
release USS Enterprise
Madagascar rollerskating team
exhaust English teacher
some variable wisdom
Liechtenstein beckons tourists
February 10–14
If the space in the phrase “Super Bowl” is moved, we can get the humorous phrase “Superb Owl.”
To earn the extra credit, find another phrase in which the space can be moved to create a different phrase as in the “Superb Owl” example. You could probably find lists of these through an internet search, but I encourage you to think up your own original one; it will be a more of a healthful mental challenge, and your sense of creative satisfaction will be greater.
February 3–7
To earn the extra credit, solve this Strands puzzle and submit a screenshot to prove it.
January 27–31
To earn the extra credit, solve this word spiral puzzle.
January 20–24
Some words have many common words that rhyme with them. You could probably list dozens of words that rhyme with the word “blue” for example: you, true, moo, crew, stew…
Other words have no common words that rhyme with them. The word “orange” is commonly cited as an example, though Eminem suggests the phrase “door hinge” in this interview. And this poem points out the difficulty of finding a rhyme for another color. (Note: The word interpolate means “to add something in the middle of a text, piece of music, etc.”):
If I can’t use interpol-
ate, I’ll never find a rhyme for purple.
To earn the extra credit this week, give another word (besides “orange” or “purple”) that has no common rhymes, and come up with a creative way to make it rhyme with something else.
January 13–17
To earn the extra credit, solve the cryptogram below. Each letter in the original quote has been consistently replaced with another letter of the alphabet, and any digits (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0) have been consistently replaced with another digit.
While a Google search would show you numerous cryptogram solvers that use the unique features of computers to try millions of different solutions per second to decrypt a message instantly, please do not use that method. That would go against the spirit of this challenge. Use manual solving techniques only. Hint: K = R
“YGK UGR IQL FGZ RTLZOFTR XL YGK VKQZI, WXZ ZG GWZQOF LQSCQZOGF ZIKGXUI GXK SGKR PTLXL EIKOLZ, VIG ROTR YGK XL LG ZIQZ VITZITK VT QKT QVQAT GK QLSTTH VT DOUIZ SOCT VOZI IOD. ZITKTYGKT TFEGXKQUT GFT QFGZITK QFR WXOSR GFT QFGZITK XH, PXLZ QL NGX QKT RGOFU.”
—7 ZITLLQSGFOQFL 2:78
January 6–10
As we’ve recently turned the calendar page from 2024 to 2025, the weekly wordplay this week is a word ladder going from FOUR to FIVE.
Beginning with the word FOUR, change one letter at a time—always forming a valid word each time you change a letter—until you form the word FIVE.
Example: DOG to CAT
DOG > DOT > COT > CAT
To earn the extra credit, turn in a sequence of words that will transform FOUR into FIVE.
Just a reminder: It is very easy to do a Google search for something like “word ladder solver” and find tools that use the power of computers and large databases of words to solve word ladder puzzles almost instantaneously. I trust that you won’t use a word ladder solver, since that would go against the spirit of this wordplay challenge.
December 16–20
This week, we have a guest Weekly Wordplay created by Jacob Chinnock.
Fill in this crossword with all the correct answers to earn the extra credit for this week.
After you fill in the grid with all the correct answers and earn the extra credit, there is an additional metapuzzle to solve that leads to a Barnes & Noble gift card hidden somewhere on campus.
December 9–13
Each year, several organizations that focus on language select a “word of the year.” For example, this year the Oxford University Press word of the year is “brain rot.”
To earn the extra credit, tell what the word of the year should be, according to the language authority you, and explain why it deserves that distinction.
December 2–6
This week’s Wordplay is a Spelling Bee puzzle. The New York Times posts one daily. We’ll play a bit of today’s NYT puzzle in class as an example.
To earn the extra credit, achieve the “Awesome” level in this Spelling Bee puzzle and turn in a screenshot to prove it.
November 18–22
To earn the extra credit for this week, solve these Thanksgiving-themed hink pinks:
I have a hink pink for a baked dessert that has lost too much moisture.
I have a hink pink for a hearty meal for wild animals.
I have a hink pink for mischievous tricks intended to show gratitude.
I have a hinky pinky for a game bird with peculiar personality traits.
I have a hinkarinkity pinkadinkity (I just made that term up for this phrase of five-syllable rhyming words) for a horn-shaped basket symbolizing the abundant nourishment available in an East African nation.
November 12–16
This weekend, my wife, kids, and I visited my wife’s brother in the Bay Area. We went to a museum in San Jose and walked by Adobe World Headquarters. They’re the company that makes Photoshop and a lot of other widely-used software.
At the top of one of their buildings is a work of public art called the San Jose Semaphore. It’s continually displaying an encoded message. If you crack the code, Adobe will give you a two-year subscription to all their software. The current code has been going since May of last year, and no one has solved it yet. Two previous codes have been solved since the installation of the artwork in 2006.
Here is a simpler (I think) code to crack:
MATT JEILYN SAMUEL SAMUEL KATE SAMUEL
To earn the extra credit, crack the code to find the hidden word, which is six letters long.
November 4–8
To earn the extra credit, explain what unusual property these phrases have in common:
obtuse angle
scale back
crime gang
lemon tea
October 28–November 1
Recall that homophones are two words or phrases that sound the same when spoken aloud, but have different meanings.
I have a picture book titled No Reading Allowed (and notice, of course, that the title could sound exactly like “No Reading Aloud” when its spoken and not read silently). It has pairs of sentences such as “The pool queue is far too long” (with an illustration of people waiting in a frustratingly long line to get into a public swimming facility) and “The pool cue is far too long” (with an illustration of an unwieldy billiards stick that has just shattered a window).
I greatly enjoy this book, and I’ll show several pages during class.
To earn the extra credit this week, write two sentences that sound the same when read aloud but have different meanings and illustrate each sentence.
October 21–25
This coming Friday is PAA’s Community Service Day, during which we’ll follow Jesus’ example and serve others—as he calls us to do every day!
In honor of Community Service Day, the weekly wordplay this week is a word ladder going from JESUS to SERVE.
Beginning with the word JESUS, change one letter at a time—always forming a valid word each time you change a letter—until you form the word SERVE.
Example: DOG to CAT
DOG > DOT > COT > CAT
To earn the extra credit, turn in a sequence of words that will transform JESUS into SERVE.
The last time we had a word ladder as a weekly wordplay, it took about six steps to get from the starting word to the goal word. This time, the shortest solution I’ve been able to find takes 16 steps!
Just a reminder: It is very easy to do a Google search for something like “word ladder solver” and find tools that use the power of computers and large databases of words to solve word ladder puzzles almost instantaneously. I trust that you won’t use a word ladder solver, since that would go against the spirit of this wordplay challenge.
October 14–18
Most of you have played the hink pink game before. To review…
The answer to a hink pink clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is one syllable long.
Example: Clue—I have a hink pink for feline headwear. Answer—cat hat
The answer to a hinky pinky clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is two syllables long.
Example: Clue—I have a hinky pinky for a careful learner. Answer—prudent student
The answer to a hinkity pinkity clue is a two-word rhyming phrase in which each of the words is three syllables long.
Example: Clue—I have a hinkyity pinkity for an unsolved problem about the past. Answer—history mystery
To earn the extra credit, write a hink pink (or hinky pinky, or hinkity pinkity) clue and answer related to something you’ve studied so far this year in one of your PAA classes. Next Monday, We’ll try to solve the hink pinks you turn in.
October 7–11
To earn the extra credit, complete this word pyramid puzzle.
September 30–October 4
To earn the extra credit, solve this Strands puzzle and submit a screenshot to prove it.
September 23–27
To earn the extra credit, solve this Connections puzzle and submit a screenshot to prove it.
September 16–20
To earn the extra credit, solve this word spiral puzzle.
September 9–13
Solve this Wordle-like puzzle. The answer is the name of a PAA student. Turn in a screenshot attached to the Weekly Wordplay assignment on Google Classroom to earn the extra credit.
September 2–6
I hope you enjoyed your long Labor Day weekend and instead of your usual studies and schoolwork on Monday had an enjoyable rest.
In honor of Labor Day, the weekly wordplay this week is a word ladder going from WORK to REST.
Beginning with the word WORK, change one letter at a time—always forming a valid word each time you change a letter—until you form the word REST.
Example: DOG to CAT
DOG > DOT > COT > CAT
To earn the extra credit, turn in a sequence of words that will transform WORK into REST.
Just a reminder: It is very easy to do a Google search for something like “word ladder solver” and find tools that use the power of computers and large databases of words to solve word ladder puzzles almost instantaneously. I trust that you won’t use a word ladder solver, since that would go against the spirit of this wordplay challenge.
August 26–30
These odd phrases share a property that most phrases do not:
EMBER ARMY
BAKE NO ACORN
JOHN JOHN’S AUTOS
CLAIM A UNICORN
FINE FIR JELLY
RE-ENTER HONDURAS
To earn the extra credit, explain what highly unusual property the phrases share.
And just for fun, since we talked about generative AI algorithms in the syllabus for each English class last week, here are some AI-generated illustrations of some of the phrases:
August 21–23
Correctly complete this mini-crossword to earn the extra credit.