Rereading my favourite Lewis Carroll collection this morning, I was struck by the idea for a very decidedly "on-topic" challenge. Carroll invented the game of changing one word into another, one letter at a time. One example was "witch" into "fairy" My challenge is this: Below are three of his "Doublets", with the number of intermediate words he used. Beat him!

Turn WITCH into FAIRY (12 links)
Put ROUGE on CHEEK (16 links)
Make WINTER SUMMER (13 links)

The prize will be a list of six impossible things to be believed before breakfast. There will be a consolation prize of glory (Humpty's definition) for any who happen to use the same words that Carroll did. A link to the original solutions will be posted in one week, or when we have a winner, whichever comes first. Also, please remember that, under rule No. 42, all persons more than a mile high must leave the court.

Hi Max:

You sure know how to keep a fella busy, don't you.

I can put ROUGE into CHEEK in 16 links, and I can make WINTER into SUMMER in 10 links, but I can't turn WITCH into FAIRY under 18 links. I'll keep working on that one for a day or two.

Allô Maxie dear,

Do you count the original and last word?

Non, ma chèrie. Seulement les autres mots. ( self-congratulatory emoticon for longest phrase written in French since High School) We already have a front-runner, a WINTER-SUMMER transformation in ten links, albeit with a slight divergence into language that could be decribed as "likely to be looked at slighly askance in formal circles." Keep 'em coming people!

Time's up, folks, put down those durian sandwiches and pay homage to our winner, maverick. He remembered two of the doublets, and came up with a significant improvement on the third, at least an improvement defined as a reduction in the number of links needed. Here is maverick's reply, verbatim:

Witch into Fairy with 12 links:
WITCH
winch
wench
tench
tenth
tents
tints
tilts
tills
fills
falls
fails
fairs
FAIRY

Rouge onto Cheek with 16 links:

ROUGE
rough
sough
south
sooth
booth
boots
boats
brats
brass
crass
cress
chess
chest
cheat
cheap
cheep
CHEEK

I think I have an 8 link version for Winter into Summer:

WINTER
winker
wanker
wander
warder
harder
harmer
hammer
hummer
SUMMER
Hope no-one’s upset by the vulgar word ‘hammer’!

Here's another Carollian challenge. Charles Dodgson became Lewis Carroll by translating Charles Lutwedge into Latin as Carolus Ludovicus, then reversing those names, and translating them back into English as Lewis Carroll. Would anyone care to do something similar with their own names? Perhaps generate the new name, and simply post back the results, along with the language used, for others to attempt to discover what the original was. Convoluted cryptography sounds like a good name for this appropriately pointless endeavour.

Way to go, mav!

MAX--I got brave and put your name into Babelfish:
English to Portuguese. Here you are in Portygee:
"Máximo Quordlepleen".
Now--when I put Máximo Quordlepleen to be translated from
Portuguese to English, you became Quordlepleen Maximum!

<Hope no-one’s upset by the vulgar word ‘hammer’! >

My brother used to joke about an old fraternity brother who was an inveterate "wanker." His friends used to joke in his absence that he was up in his room, "hammering away."

Ha! And I thought he was playfully alluding to "hummer."

Well done, mav!

Hope no-one’s upset by the vulgar word ‘hammer’!

You let’em start with a hammer and they end bringing a sickle.

Mallaidh Sean