Missing letter
Marvin Siano
then asked what it was missing.
It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I have
been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have it?
Thanks,
Marv
Kent Parks
: Once in High school a teacher gave the class a paragraph to read and
: then asked what it was missing.
: It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I have
: been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have it?
I've seen one that was called "About December" [there are E's in the title
but not the essay itself]. It may have been in this paperback I remember
everyone having in late elementary school (I think it was one we ordered
from the "Arrow Book Club!") called _Brain Teasers and Tantalizing
Twisters_ or something--had a maze shaped like a 1920s-era man on the
front, anybody remember it?
Actually, it would not be THAT hard to write such an essay onesself...
Kent
Rod Taylor
Marvin Siano wrote in message <36A56FD3...@midsouth.rr.com>...
>Once in High school a teacher gave the class a paragraph to read and
>then asked what it was missing.
>It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I
have
>been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have
it?
Here's one:
How quickly can you find out what is unusual about this paragraph? It
looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing was wrong with it
at
all and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study
it
and think about it you may find out, but I am not going to assist you
in
any way. You must do it without coaching. No doubt, if you work at it
for long, it will dawn on you. Who knows? Go to work and try your
skill.
Rod
Jamie Dreier
> I've seen one that was called "About December" [there are E's in the title
> but not the essay itself]. It may have been in this paperback I remember
> everyone having in late elementary school (I think it was one we ordered
> from the "Arrow Book Club!") called _Brain Teasers and Tantalizing
> Twisters_ or something--had a maze shaped like a 1920s-era man on the
> front, anybody remember it?
"About December" appeared in GAMES magazine a few years ago, presumably
originally.
I think I had that paperback too. The maze man had a bowler hat. (Could be
a derby, what do I know from hats?) Was the book orange? I think it had a
3-noun phrase title, like "Puzzles, Teasers, and Tantalizing Posers", or
something like that.
-Jamie
--
SpamGard: For real return address replace "DOT" with "."
Eytan Zweig
Marvin Siano <msi...@midsouth.rr.com> wrote in message
news:36A56FD3...@midsouth.rr.com...
>Once in High school a teacher gave the class a paragraph to read and
>then asked what it was missing.
>It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I have
>been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have it?
>Marv
>
This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but it's related. There is a
french book, that was translated into English, called "Void", in which the
letter E is never used (in the translation as well as the original). I have
not read it, since I can't seem to find a copy - everywhere I look it's out
of print. However, I have read a very favourable review of it.
Seems you can take any paragraph from that book and use it to answer the
question.
Eytan Zweig
Kent Parks
: "About December" appeared in GAMES magazine a few years ago, presumably
: originally.
: I think I had that paperback too. The maze man had a bowler hat. (Could be
: a derby, what do I know from hats?) Was the book orange? I think it had a
: 3-noun phrase title, like "Puzzles, Teasers, and Tantalizing Posers", or
: something like that.
Yes! the bowler hat means it's got to be the same one. I don't remember
the color or the exact title, except that "Tantalizing" was in the title,
because at the time I was in elementary school and didn't know what it
meant :)
Kent
Mark Dawes
Eytan Zweig wrote in message <784vsm$pqu$1...@goethe.tau.ac.il>...
>This isn't exactly an answer to your question, but it's related. There is a
>french book, that was translated into English, called "Void", in which the
>letter E is never used (in the translation as well as the original). I have
>not read it, since I can't seem to find a copy - everywhere I look it's out
>of print. However, I have read a very favourable review of it.
>
>Seems you can take any paragraph from that book and use it to answer the
>question.
>
>Eytan Zweig
I reckon it's called "A void" (nice pun!) but unfortunately the letter e
does appear, if only on the spine. The author was Georg Perec!
Mark
Chrissa
i think you would find it hard to put forward a paragraph without "E". This
bit was not as inchy bubs as it looks!!! your turn......
chrissa
Kent Parks wrote in message <783tcd$roj$3...@pinta.pagesz.net>...
>Marvin Siano <msi...@midsouth.rr.com> wrote:
>: Once in High school a teacher gave the class a paragraph to read and
>: then asked what it was missing.
>: It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I have
>: been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have it?
>
>I've seen one that was called "About December" [there are E's in the title
>but not the essay itself]. It may have been in this paperback I remember
>everyone having in late elementary school (I think it was one we ordered
>from the "Arrow Book Club!") called _Brain Teasers and Tantalizing
>Twisters_ or something--had a maze shaped like a 1920s-era man on the
>front, anybody remember it?
>
Ron Thomas
<cda...@nojunk.iaccess.com.au> wrote:
>to mr parks
>
>i think you would find it hard to put forward a paragraph without "E". This
>bit was not as inchy bubs as it looks!!! your turn......
>
>chrissa
> Chrissa, it is a moot point that any paragraph of any sort of sonority must contain that all-dominant symbol.
For my own thinking,, I maintain it is not past possibility that a
pompous blurb such as this is could find its way on to a front display
of any daily rag in our country!
Ron Thomas
Wei-Hwa Huang
>Kent Parks <kmp...@nina.pagesz.net> wrote:
>> I've seen one that was called "About December" [there are E's in the title
>> but not the essay itself]. It may have been in this paperback I remember
>> everyone having in late elementary school (I think it was one we ordered
>> from the "Arrow Book Club!") called _Brain Teasers and Tantalizing
>> Twisters_ or something--had a maze shaped like a 1920s-era man on the
>> front, anybody remember it?
>I think I had that paperback too. The maze man had a bowler hat. (Could be
>a derby, what do I know from hats?) Was the book orange? I think it had a
>3-noun phrase title, like "Puzzles, Teasers, and Tantalizing Posers", or
>something like that.
That was "Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers", by none other
than the famous Martin Gardner.
It was published before I was born!
--
Wei-Hwa Huang, whu...@ugcs.caltech.edu, http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~whuang/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moral of George Orwell's _Animal Farm_ : "Pigs are such men!!"
Martin Julian DeMello
: On Thu, 21 Jan 1999 13:55:27 +1100, "Chrissa"
: <cda...@nojunk.iaccess.com.au> wrote:
In fact, you could always go on and on, without pomposity, sounding
totally natural, and still not run into any sort of difficulty - as long
as you can find common synonyms for words containing you-know-what.
In fact, a surprising quantity of words, all of which John Q. Public would
call 'common', lack this
not-as-ubiquitious-as-you-may-think-but-increasingly^Wgrowing-
harder^Wmore^W^Wstill-difficult-to-avoid letter. Damn.
--
Martin DeMello
Remove the sep_field from my address to reply
call_...@hotmail.com
>
> i think you would find it hard to put forward a paragraph without "E". This
> bit was not as inchy bubs as it looks!!! your turn......
>
First and last post from my hand, I'll try this tricky narration
without consulting a dictionary or any similar kind of book. Now,
I may slow down occasionally, but in truth I find this paragraph
to flow quickly from my workstation straight to your monitor.
Although I do not want to fall into a common trap of saying any
words too much, occasionally I find no option. Consonants all stand
proudly, but I am rapidly cultivating a fond attraction for two
symbols: "o" and "f", which I think sort into a position of high
honor in any chart of symbol counting as our most common symbol falls
out of favor. This could go on far too long, so I must finish soon.
I should point out that additionally, as I sign my alias to stop this
paragraph, I still follow said path as I slip back into my dark
world of lurking. Now almost half an hour did pass during this
paragraph's composition, so on to my conclusion. I bid you all a
fond...........???..........aloha. ;)
- Dan
*****
Toughest words to get around IMO:
the (not always, but in a few places I was almost stumped)
repeat/redundancy
use/usage
letter/character (I could only think of symbol)
obey rule/regulation/guideline ("follow said path"?!)
frequency table (symbol counting chart...lol)
numbers (digits are too easy)
time increments
farewell/goodbye
plural "(i)es" and past tense "ed"
I think a harder puzzle would be first and foremost to require a minimum of a
hundred words. (Mine was around 200) Try constructing a 100+ word paragraph
that displays a perfectly converse frequency table, coordinating vowels and
consonants. "e" should appear in the expected frequency of (u? y? whichever is
least common) and the least common vowel should appear in the frequency that
"e" is expected to. Switch all 6 vowels this way, and all 22 consonants.
(considering y as 2 different letters maybe - the vowel and the consonant)
I wonder if this is even possible? (poorly veiled challenge)
- Dan
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Jim Cross
>
> >
> > i think you would find it hard to put forward a paragraph without "E". This
> > bit was not as inchy bubs as it looks!!! your turn......
> >
>
> First and last post from my hand, I'll try this tricky narration
> without consulting a dictionary or any similar kind of book. Now,
> I may slow down occasionally, but in truth I find this paragraph
> to flow quickly from my workstation straight to your monitor.
> Although I do not want to fall into a common trap of saying any
> words too much, occasionally I find no option. Consonants all stand
> proudly, but I am rapidly cultivating a fond attraction for two
> symbols: "o" and "f", which I think sort into a position of high
> honor in any chart of symbol counting as our most common symbol falls
> out of favor. This could go on far too long, so I must finish soon.
> I should point out that additionally, as I sign my alias to stop this
> paragraph, I still follow said path as I slip back into my dark
> world of lurking. Now almost half an hour did pass during this
> paragraph's composition, so on to my conclusion. I bid you all a
> fond...........???..........aloha. ;)
>
> - Dan
>
Thinking of compliant finishing words was not all that difficult. How
about: ciao, so long, vaya con Dios (go with God)?
--
Jim Cross - Vacuum Tubes, Inc.
http://www.cinternet.net/~vactubes
email to vact...@cinternet.net
Check us out for new, used, audio, antique, and collectable types.
Vacuum Tubes, Inc.
3246 Floridale Lane
Cincinnati, OH 45239-6203
Dan Chall
It's an e-less mystery novel whose plot is about a missing character. The
book was written in French but later translated into English, maintaining
the same lexical peculiarity. The book includes translations of poetry, such
as "The Black Bird" (who repeatedly says "Not Again"). See
Barnesandnoble.com (I didn't find it in Amazon).
Peter Watkins
>
> Once in High school a teacher gave the class a paragraph to read and
> then asked what it was missing.
> It was missing the letter E. No words containing E were used. I have
> been searching for this and can't find it. Does anybody here have it?
> Marv
=======================================
To give you something to aim for, I'll quote from the The Book of Lists
3 (by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace, Corgi 1983).
It has a list of "8 incredible lipograms". These are:
1. Jacques Arago - an A-less book
The French author's book Voyage Autour du Monde Sans La Lettre A debuted
in 1853. However, 30 years later he admitted letting one letter A sneak
by him in the book - he had overlooked the word serait.
2. Gyles Brandreth - Hamlet without any I's
A contemporary British lipogrammarian, Brandreth specializes in dropping
a different letter from each of Shakespeare's plays. All Is were
omitted from hamlet, rendering the famous soliloquy "To be or not to
be: that's the query. He proceeded to rewrite Twelfth Night without
the letters L and O, Othello without any Os and Macbeth without any As
or Es.
3. Gottlob Burmann - R-less poetry (1737-1805)
Bearing an obsessive dislike for the letter R, Burmann not only only
wrote 130 poems without using that letter, but he also omitted the
letter R from his daily conversation for 17 years. This practice meant
the eccentric 18th-century German poet never said his own name.
4. A. Ross Eckler - Lipogram nursery rhymes
Eckler's specialty is rewqriting well-known nursery rhymes suuch as
"Little Jack Horner" excluding certain letters. His masterpiece was
"Mary had a little lamb", which he recreated in several versions
omitting in turn the letters S, A, H, E and T (as in the T-less "Mary
had a pygmy lamb").
5. Peter De Riga - a lipogram bible
Summarising the entire bible in latin, the 16th century canon of Rheims
Cathedral in France omitted a different letter of the alphabet from each
of the 23 chapters he produced.
6. Tryphiodorus - a lipogram odyssey
The greek poet Tryphiodorus wrote his epic poem Odyssey, chronicling the
adventures of Ulysses, excluding a different letter of the alphabet from
each of the 24 books. Thus, the first book was written without alpha,
the second without beta, and so on.
7. Lope De Vega Carpio - 5 novels without vowels (1562-1635)
Also known as Spain's first great dramatist, who reputedly wrote 2200
plays, this 16th century author wrote 5 novels that were lipograms.
Each book omitted one of the five vowels A, E, I, O and U, in turn.
8. Ernest Vincent Wright - Novel without an E (1939)
Tying down the E on his typewriter to make sure one didn't slip in,
Wright, a graduate om M.I.T., wrote a credible 50110-word novel, Gadsby,
totally excluding the most frequently used letter in the English
language. ... Wright, a 67 year old Californian, undertook his E-less
novel to prove such a feat could be done. He wrote the book in 165
days. He employed no tricks, such as coining words or substituting
apostrophes for Es. His greatest difficulty, he stated, was in avoiding
the use of verbs ending with ED, being forced to use SAID for REPLIED or
ASKED. and in avoiding all pronouns such as HE, SHE or THEY. Wright
died on the day of his book's publication - but the $3.00 novel remains
his monument...
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