Mousetrap - 56

On the tip of your tongue
One Look Reverse Dictionary
Online dictionaries are a boon when you want to look up the meaning of a word quickly, or check a spelling, but what if you can’t quite recall a word you want? If you know its meaning, but the word is just out of reach, somewhere in your memory? This utility (part of a larger dictionary search site, which claims to index “7,934,909 words in 974 dictionaries” and is worth a visit), lets you input a word or words, even a sentence or a query, then gives you a bunch of words that could be related. I find that it gives you too many answers, but it’s still in Beta, so it’s worth keeping track of. Meanwhile, it even has a way to help you solve crossword puzzles!

Mousetrap Tested, Mother Approved.
The Advertising Slogan Generator & The Free Slogan Generator
Forget temperamental ad agency creatives and massive agency bills. Get yourself your very own slogan, for free. Fill in a name, and either of these sites will generate endless slogans for you. Satisfaction guaranteed! [Link via Sunil Shibad]

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Structured procrastination
Dear Ed. Will send you copy and headline for this item later. - peter

Dill waters run steep
Tarzan's Tripes Forever, and Other Feghoots
What are feghoots? Related to the anti-climatic ending shaggy dog story genre, they’re also meandering anecdotes, but the dfference is that they must end in a pun, preferably atrocious and groan-worthy. The entire story is merely a set-up for the word-play. Our Ajit jokes almost qualify, I think, except that they’re never very long. If you’ve followed this column, you’d know that I’m addicted to bad puns. So, much joy happens when I go through these archives. There are 1,920 of them as of this writing. Ooh, there is a god!

Websong
Blogswara
An interesting idea taken to fruition. This a collaboration between Indian bloggers in different parts of the world. And no, it’s not a blog. It is a musical collaboration, with (up to now) songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. They’ve done everything, lyrics, music, orchestration, vocals, even the mixing, online. I’m no music critic, so you go check out their wares. The price is good: they’re all free downloads.

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This week’s blog

Fresh words
Word Mint
Regular readers (all two of you) will know that this column has a weakness for sites about words and language in general. This blog falls into that category. It makes up words, the world needs, and serves them up with definition, pronunciation, an example of usage (though that’s usually the weakest section) and an etymology. It’s a CollaBlog (no, not one of their words, this one I made up several years ago, and it actuallu caught on!) run by a dozen or so bloggers, so there’s fairly frequent posting. And they’re open to new members, so you could join in.


Reader suggestions welcome, and will be acknowledged. Go to http://o3.indiatimes.com/mousetrap for past columns, and to comment, or mail inthemousetrap@indiatimes.com. The writer blogs at http://zigzackly.blogspot.com.

Published in the Times of India, Mumbai edition, 4th June, 2006.

Tags: The Times of India, Mousetrap