Levidrome Cryptic Clues

Just like with Ethan Hunt in the new Mission: Impossible Fallout, the action on Twitter is heating up. No, I’m not talking nuclear bombs or dealing with the fallout thereof. I’m talking about the Levidrome Movement.

Back in February (see post here), I wrote a post all about the different ways in which the Levidrome Movement was gaining ground. Schools all over the world have created Levidrome boards. Breweries have paid homage by naming their lagers levidrome (because lager is actually a levidrome- lager=regal). Local communities have published Levidrome word searches. Songs have been written about levidromes.

On Twitter, we who have joined the movement are hashtagging levidrome like crazy. AND, we’re having a lot of fun with it all.

If you don’t recall from the original levidrome post back in December (see post here), the whole inception of levidrome began because Levi Budd looked at a STOP sign and asked his mother what the word was for a word that spelled one word forwards and another word backwards. When neither his mother nor his father could find an answer, five year old (that’s how old he was at the time) Levi solved the problem. Channeling his inner Shakespeare (or Dr. Seuss- he made up quite a few words, too, though I don’t know if they are in the OED…), Levi created the word:

LEVIDROME

A word that spells one word forwards and spells another word backwards.

Levi’s father, Lucky Budd, has a very active presence on Twitter, particularly where Levidromes are concerned. Lucky has started a game: Levidrome Cryptic Crossword Clues. (Honestly, if you’re on Twitter, you need to follow @luckybudd because this game is a whole lot of fun.)

Daily, he posts a two pronged clue whose answer is a levidrome- meaning that the answer to one part of the clue is the answer to the other part of the clue, only spelled backwards.

Here’s an example from one of my readers here at Whiskers (Thanks, Chris):

The lone creatures watches the movement of the river…

Know the answer? Well, it’s a wolf watching a river flow. The levidrome is:

wolf - flow

Let’s do another one just to get the juices flowing.

She took a look to make sure the food did not spoil…

The answer is that you need to take a peek to see if the food will keep. The levidrome is:

peek - keep

All right, one more for good measure:

I need some cash to change the baby…

Well, you should get repaid, so you can get a diaper. The levidrome is:

repair - diaper

Are you catching the gist of how this works?

Well, then, your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to answer as many of these Levidrome Cryptic Clues as you can. If you think you have one or more than one or all of them (if you have all of them, then kudos to you because some of these left me scratching my noggin), leave your answers in the comments below.

From Lucky Budd’s Twitter feed:

I’m in need of something to help fasten…
The boxer staggered after the punch, then ogled the referee…
Plunder with a hammer…
He did not do a good job marking his Bingo card…
Libation for the royal wedding…
Ben Affleck’s BFF walks to earth…
Portrait with a pencil of the father on Leave It To Beaver...
Seinfeld’s neighbor has a comment for you…
Marcallus Wallace's wife points to the target...
The Greek god of thunder likes canals…
The #levidrome of this Canadian skater's first name is a synonym for her last name...
The poet was quite lacklustre...

This one is a particular favorite of mine:

Muhammed Ali’s best rhymes before a practice fight…

From LC Plaunt’s Twitter feed:

An irate man pounding sand… (This one was tough one for me. Hint: it has to do with a sport.)

From Leticia M. Trower’s feed:

Cam Newton dances poorly…

From Robert Thompson’s Twitter feed:

Is bottled water to be trusted?

Now, here’s a few I came up with:

These Knights love the Huskers…
If the Hoover busts, people will be livid…
That prima donna is eager for attention…
A hostile contention can leave one chaffed...
When mom is in a bad one, it can mean the end of the world…
Noisome flies drown in this astronaut’s beverage…
To rebuke a couch potato…

Now, these two clues have the same answer. Since the one from Diane M Schuller’s Twitter feed had me stumped for a while, I’m giving all y’all a double clue.

Here’s Diane’s:

I thought about it a lot and finally figured out what we need to ride the rails.

And here’s the second clue:

Intelligent people take public transportation…

Now, I’m not expecting you, dear readers, to answer all of those. There are rather a lot of them. But, try your hand at one or two and see if you like. Leave your answers in the comments section below and don't forget to provide the clue you're answer, too. (There are so many... don't want to get confused.)

Now, find the answers here.

I’m sure that by the time of this posting, there will have been more Levidrome Cryptic Crossword Clue posts to Lucky Budd’s Twitter account as well as numerous other accounts. If you want more, check them out.

*Post Script: @levidrome_daily has a wonderful levidrome story here: