ECLIPSE and SEQUITUR

ECLIPSE is total deletion. You have to rebuild a text that has been completely masked out. Impossible? Well no, much easier than you might think. You can see the word shapes and the punctuation, and you see a title. Guess a word that might be in the passage, and it will be filled in everywhere it occurs. Start with common words like THE or AND. Try all the words of the title. If you are really stuck, you can ask for a hint--a free letter.

Nasreddin's Shirt	Nasreddin and the Pot		Nasreddin's Visitors			Accuracy Matters
Not a Laughing Stock		The Price of Eggs		What is Truth?	Trick or Treat?

Almost all of these are stories about Nasreddin, a figure from Middle Eastern folk lore, strongly associated with Turkey. Stories about Nasreddin are said to be addictive; if you hear one you will not be happy until you have heard six more. For that reason I have included seven Nasreddin stories above, as well as one recent newspaper item.

SEQUITUR is about putting words, phrases or sentences in order. You see a title of a text and three possible continuations. Pick the one you think is right and it will be added, and then you get three more possibles. Here are two more Nasreddin stories.

Nasreddin's Donkey

Nasreddin's Sermon

These versions of the programs have been created by Martin and Nik Holmes of Creative Technology and are marketed as TexToys.