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R&R (Posted on 2010-08-25) Difficulty: 2 of 5
My pal and I are taking some long-awaited furlough from UN peacekeeping operations. We are going to explore the wilds with another friend, and I am making a list of all the things we will need. So far, I have the following:

Mug, salt, a kayak, a vest, inkpot, pal, tent, ammo, Occasional Recuperational Break Regulations, ale, rifle, balm, a ham….

Just two questions:
What item (excluding essential liquids) will appear twice in the list, once completed?
What is the name of our very lovely female companion?

You have all the information you need to answer both questions.

  Submitted by broll    
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Solution: (Hide)
The list is a palindromic sequence, the middle letter being the 'h' of the word 'ham'. The key is that my pal and I are military men for whom the Occasional Recuperational Break Regulations would without hesitation be abbreviated to ORB(Reg). Naturally, the essential liquids are lager and ale, our third companion will be Eva, and we will be using two kayaks.

It is surprisingly difficult to construct palindromic sequences of any length using only standard 'Anglo-Saxon' words, particularly if at least 4 letters are required per word. Consider, for example, the following famous palindrome:

A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal--Panama!

This includes 7 'borrowed' words, 8 3-letter words, and 3 proper names. If we exclude also the older borrowings: canoe and banana: the point is made, because only 6 words remain from over 30 in the list.

Readers are invited to experiment, given the two suggested limitations.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
re(3): a solutionbroll2010-08-26 11:27:05
re(2): a solutionDej Mar2010-08-26 10:33:43
re: a solutionbroll2010-08-26 03:45:47
Solutiona solutionDej Mar2010-08-25 16:37:23
shot in the darkDaniel2010-08-25 11:49:31
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