Doublets

Sorry that no one’s posted in a while. The second semester of school started, and damned if it isn’t really really time-consuming.

BUT!

I got the complete works of Lewis Carroll for x-mas, and I am pleased to announce that it is pretty much awesome. A large portion of the book is dedicated to various card and word games that Carroll developed, ranging from simple to extremely complicated (the guy had a lot of free time!), and that is what brings us to todays topic:

Doublets

Doublets, or Word Ladder, is a game invented by Carroll that is endless amounts of fun and intellectual workout. The way it works is this: you have a starting word and a target word, usually related in some way, and you get from the original to the final word by linking to other English words. The way you can do this is by 1. adding a letter 2. removing a letter 3. changing a letter or 4. rearranging the letters (making an anagram). However, in the “purist” version, which is how Carroll originally proposed it, only allows for changing letters. Here is an example:
Evolve MAN to APE. MAN>RAN>RAM>RIM>AIM>AIL>ALL>ALE>APE.

Here are some by Carroll that I have solved:
Add FOUR to FIVE.
Get COAL from MINE.
BLACK fades to WHITE.

And here are some ones I came up with on my own:
READ a BOOK.
RING the dinner BELL.
KNIT her a SOCK.
The ARMY WANTs you.

Carroll also proposes the Doublet “Make a KETTLE HOLDER” using the purist method, but I haven’t solved it yet. Please feel free to try and solve any of these Doublets, and post them in the comments! I want to see if other people come up with better word routes than the ones I used (often there is more than one way to solve a Doublet).