A Friday Rebus

Here's a Friday rebus for you. Click the picture for a closer look at the five clues. Each one stands for a word -- all five together make a sentence.

Now...

...on Facebook!

A Mystery Solved!!

If you're still scratching your head over yesterday's puzzle, wonder no more! The mysterious item is none other than a darling new edition of the stylish Zenith 548, the crafting and office tool we've dubbed the "Best Stapler Ever!" I've got to admit that even in this photo, it looks less like a stapler and more like Melville's Whale. Isn't modern life strange?

We've posted the Pink Zenith to the Castle in the Air Online Shoppe, but we only have a few left, and Zenith has told us that this color will soon be discontinued. Just like some of the animal photos in that kids magazine, this one's an endangered species!

What on Earth??

When I was a kid, the science magazine at the library (Was it called World? I can't remember.) always had a fun set of photos on the back page. Each one was a close-up on some kind of animal or something you might have around the house. You looked at the photos and tried to figure out what on earth the close-ups could be showing you.

Here's something like that -- a new item that we're selling at Castle in the Air. Can you guess what it is? The answer comes tomorrow!

Wordplay for the Weekend

It's no secret that our Mr. Marsh is a fan of Lewis Carroll, the Victorian children's author and inventor of ingenious puzzles. One of Carroll's puzzles was the "doublet." In his own words:

"The rules of the Puzzle are simple enough. Two words are proposed, of the same length; and the Puzzle consists in linking these together by interposing other words, each of which shall differ from the next word in one letter only. That is to say, one letter may be changed in one of the given words, then one letter in the word so obtained, and so on, till we arrive at the other given word. The letters must not be interchanged among themselves, but each must keep to its own place.

"As an example, the word 'head' may be changed into 'tail' by interposing the words 'heal, teal, tell, tall.' I call the two given words 'a Doublet,' the interposed words 'Links,' and the entire series 'a Chain,' of which I here append an example:

H E A D
h e a l
t e a l
t e l l
t a l l
T A I L

"It is, perhaps, needless to state that it is de rigueur that the links should be English words, such as might be used in good society."

Here is a selection of Lewis Carroll's doublets that Mr. Marsh brought in for us to solve. If your local Sunday paper has gone the way of the Borogove, you can try these instead of the crossword!

Drive PIG into STY using 4 Links.

Raise FOUR to FIVE using 6 Links.

Make WHEAT into BREAD using 6 Links.

Dip PEN into INK using 5 Links.

Touch CHIN with NOSE using 5 Links.

Change TEARS into SMILE using 5 Links.