Word Puzzles: a question, and then your favorites...

Q: What are those word puzzles called in which, for instance,

WATER
-------
DEEP

= "deep underwater"

Also, what are your favorites?

HA BIRD ND

= Bird in hand

Rebus, I think. There was a thread:
REBUS

Sailing
ccccccc

(sailing the seven seas)

There's the probably apocryphal story of someone addressing a letter as follows

WOOD
JOHN
MASS.

and it being successfully delivered to John Underwood, Andover, Massachusetts.

Been racking my brains for the 20 minutes since this thread started to remember what the card/board game Dingbats was called (as it might pass as a more widely understood and possibly more specific answer than "rebus" in the UK - or maybe not, if I couldn't even remember its name), only to find it was called Whatzit in the US anyway

oh no

https://bracket.city

[Bracket City]
March 15, 2025

https://bracket.city

Rank: 🔮 (Puppet Master)
🎹 Total Keystrokes: 105
🎯 Minimum Required: 105

Total Score: 100.0
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guys i can't stop playing bracket city

Took me a bit to get the hang of but that’s super fun

Yeah and a very clever game mechanic, never seen it before. Mind you I haven't managed to get one without hints and revealing some answers - there's yer usual american bias, not knowing dunkaroos wasn't a handicap today but i've also never heard of a bully pulpit.

thank you i was stuck on that very last one

i love this tho

i might have gone off it now... (aioli is basically fancy this, for short) = mayo

bro pretending like he had to reveal the answer

yeah this is great although as people have said, there are a few US references I've never heard of

I was reading Pet Sematary the other day and had absolutely no idea what a "candy striper" was meant to be

ooh interesting! but yeah I'm not sure I'm in the frame of mind that often where I'll get all of these

Can someone explain this? the opposite of an L = w

loss and win in sports reporting

Most common in baseball in my experience so it may be an Americanism.

ta - yeah I don't think adding 'in sports' would have helped me.

OK, that's me lost my morning to Bracket City.

I am loving this, but pretty much every game I've played has had some sort of baseball or US food reference I'm utterly unaware of

[Bracket City]
March 26, 2025

https://bracket.city

Rank: 👑 (Kingmaker)
❌ Wrong guesses: 0

Total Score: 100.0
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Ahhhh well done! I got 88 on this one

I aced this one too. Satisfying.

Kingmaker here also. Either today’s was easier or I’m getting better.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43160542

interesting to see the creator's responses to a few questions that i've had

(probable) shout out in today's connections too

haha yes. iirc the starting grid order in connections is predetermined

Wordall can F right the F off with CRUFT

haha. got it in 43 seconds but i was thinking hmmm when i typed that one in.

Also not happy with DIRAM

another easy bracket city today

Today's was the easiest so far

96.9, i had to get hints for particularly demoralizing place to get stabbed (obvious really) and youth detention site (bloody cryptic definitions)

oh yeah i'm a bit stuck on a few today. yesterday's was very easy by comparison. medusa?

yeah i had to use the surrounding context for that one - and others.

got it in the end. got stuck on the detention centre one too

#thirdle #thirdle1098

🏆 3 / 6 | 🔥 6

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🟩🟩 🟩⬛ 🟩🟩
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I'm really enjoying https://thirdle.org — as Wordle variants go, it provides a nice easy win to start the day.

Bracket City has sold out to The Man--if by The Man you mean The Atlantic magazine website.

yeah that didn't take long!

puppet master today btw

a couple of nice funny clues

Total keystrokes: 72
Minimum keystrokes needed: 77
Excess keystrokes: -5

whaaa

(I tried again and got the same, must be an error or bad data)