If you'd find Jack Griffin, Anne Darrow, Altaira Morbius, Gerald Deemer and Karen Goodwin in the same place, what would another participant be wearing?

David Brain

Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear.

The names are characters from various classic SF films mentioned in the lyrics of "Science Fiction, Double Feature" from "The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show":
Jack Griffin (Claude Rains, The Invisible Man),
Ann Darrow (Fay Wray, King Kong),
Altaira Morbius (Anne Francis, Forbidden Planet),
Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll, Tarantula), and
Karen Goodwin (Janette Scott, The Day of the Triffids).

- Alan

What two English words could reflect on each of the following?

kcohs
notgnihsaw
traeht
noinueht
dnim
gnieb

 

"State of" anagrams:

state of shock

state of Washington

state of the art

state of The Union

state of mind

state of being

Mick T

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Where on Earth is this?

Liverpool. And since I grew up there, it was nice to be able to do one without looking anything up! (I even had my hair cut regularly at the barbershop on Penny Lane...) - David Brain

As well as the barber shop on Penny Lane there is also the gateway to Strawberry Fields. Being a port Liverpool has a large Chinatown area with roots going back at least to the nineteenth century and of course because of The Beatles there are a lot of tourists from all around the world, particularly from the Far East, as Liverpool is about as exotic as you can get for them.

I have been playing Scrabble with Death again.

I placed my first tile just left of the centre star, with a vowel over it and with three more beside it. The fourth letter was valued at 5.

ISN'T THAT A BIT RUDE?

“No, it's the third derivative of position.”

FAIR ENOUGH.

Death played four tiles vertically down from the final letter of the previous word.

“Isn't that a proper noun?”

IT'S ALSO A KIND OF WEAPONIZED STICK.

“Of course, no worries mate.”

I play a single consonant, valued at 2, scoring 3 in total.

“Latinized from the original German.”

SO I'D HEARD.

“Was that a twinkle in your socket then?”

No comment. Death studied his tiles.

I'VE HEARD YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT HAVING A HAND THAT LOOKS LIKE A POLISH SURNAME BUT I'VE ACTUALLY GOT THE SURNAME OF THE MOST FAMOUS — Death breaks off to consult an hourglass, he pauses, shakes it and peers very intently — YES, THE MOST FAMOUS LIVING POLE.

Play Death's next move (in Scrabble). Standard Scrabble rules apply. I'll award a point to the best, or equal best, score.

a blank or by using letters already played. So:

Your first move is #ERK (where # is the blank tile), using the blank as a J. (There is only one J, and Death has it later).

Death's Aussie stick weapon could at first sight be either KYLIE or its alternative spelling KILEY. In fact, it must be the latter. (Kiley is a girl's name too, e.g. Kiley Dean, who is also a bit of a looker but not quite in the Minogue class.)

Your next word is ID. The fact you only score 3 rules out KYLIE, because then your D would be on a double-word square and you'd have scored 6.

Assuming the most famous living Pole is the Pope, Death now has WOJTYLA on his rack. If your agreed dictionary allows it, Death uses the E of KILEY to make JEWY for 34 (the W is on a double-word square). Otherwise, he settles for JEW, for 26.

The adjective "jewy" is in the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (1989, reprinted 2000). Among other citations, James Joyce uses it (as an adjectival noun, but that's Joyce for you) in Ulysses -- see, e.g., www.bibliomania.com/0/0/2...eset.html. I know you're a justly ardent admirer of the OED, and I'm sure you'd use nothing but the best references when taking on so venerable an opponent.

-Alan

ID was correct, I planned for KYLIE but not knowing about the bonus square messed that up, and I was also unaware that there was only the one J. But apart from that it was a good question.

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How about a date?

1978 - the year of (National Lampoon's) Animal House.

The pictures refer to nicknames of characters in the film: Pinto, Flounder, Bluto, Stork (a balance exercise pose), and Otter.

says Alan, who was closest. I was actually thinking of 6 June 1944 and the nickname of Daniel Simpson Day.

Can you link the following (not an exhaustive list):

Sign of an elected Pope.

Common cereal.

Majestic piscine migrant. (Three varieties)

Several tasty sounding morsels.

Soft shoe.

Arboreal source of oil.

Baseball favours.

Rhyme free fruit.

Denim dye.

Flax cloth.

Au

Ms Moore

Chimney lining.

Mineral.

Sign of distress.

Oft savoured fruit.

Tusk.

Monastic tipple.

Water hidden in a bottle.

Seafood soup.

A man who doesn't wear the face he deserves.

 

Color (sic) names recognized by browers (if not formally by W3C)

Sign of an elected Pope. whitesmoke #F5F5F5

Common cereal. wheat #F5DEB3

Majestic piscine migrant. (Three varieties)

salmon #FA8072
lightsalmon #FFA07A
darksalmon #E9967A

Several tasty sounding morsels.

chocolate #D2691E
mintcream #F5FFFA
papayawhip #FFEFD5

possibly another couple at a stretch too

Soft shoe. moccasin #FFE4B5

Arboreal source of oil. olive #808000

Baseball favours. dodgerblue #1E90FF

Rhyme free fruit. orange #FFA500

Denim dye. indigo #4B0082

Flax cloth. linen #FAF0E6

Au gold #FFD700

Ms Moore pink #FFC0CB (P!nk)

Chimney lining. firebrick #B22222

Mineral. turquoise #40E0D0 (requires woolly thinking)

Sign of distress. maroon #800000

Oft savoured fruit. tomato #FF6347

Tusk. ivory #FFFFF0

Monastic tipple. chartreuse #7FFF00

Water hidden in a bottle. aqua #00FFFF (look on the label of toiletries, they like to pretend they aren't selling you water)

Seafood soup. bisque #FFE4C4

A man who doesn't wear the face he deserves. gray #808080 as in The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

Who is missing from this sequence?

George IV

Edward III

Henry III

* II

William II

Edward I and a bit.

 

Missing is Henry II.

It's a list of unbroken sequences of rulers of England having the same name, the roman numerals denoting how many reigns/kings are involved in each batch (for example, there were four consecutive Kings George; there was a sequence of three Kings Henry, and another (the missing one) of two Henrys). The "and a bit" refers to the 13-year-old Edward V, who lasted a mere two months in the job before being, er, dispatched by his Wicked Uncle Crookback.

- Alan

What connects the following words:

afraid

avoid

conformist

follow

frighten

lecher

nonsense

Alternative definitions for farmyard animals: chicken, duck, sheep, dog, cow, goat, bull.

Quite ironic that Alan duck was part of the answer, that's what Alan scored for this question, I thought it was wonderful.

Alan

In my trusty old dictionary between an imaginary country and a platform for guns I find weird; a lament for the dead; one more than #a; a wonderful remedy; abode of the blessed; financial maltreatment; retired; spontaneous, spurious or nocturnal; and based upon observation.

Can you see anybody who thinks he's better than the rest of us?

Between Eldorado and emplacement you find eldritch; elegy; eleven; elixir; Elysium; embezzlement; emeritus; emission; and empirical.

Supposedly better than us plebs? An elitist, and perhaps an eminence or an emperor.

- Alan

(a or A or #a etc. is the hexadecimal notation for ten.)

What about an Emir and an Elector too?

The letter of the unlettered.

The Inuit sea goddess.

Reception that's no party.

Proverbial spot marker.

What wavelength are we on?

(clue in the question number again!)

Somewhere around 1 nanometre (1.0E-9 metres) - the wavelength of X-rays.

"X", or "cross", is the link:
letter of the unlettered - an illiterate's signature mark is traditionally a cross
Inuit sea goddess - Sedna, newly discovered planet(oid) thought to be the postulated Planet X
reception that's no party - cross-reception, e.g. on a cellphone; most annoying
proverbial spot marker - "X marks the spot"

-- Alan

I was thinking of simply RX standing for reception, but Alan's is at least as good.