MIX Me Up, Please!

If you like word games, logic puzzles, or ciphers, then you might find a title or link of interest here.  If solving is no salve for you, try not to stray, because prizes are involved.

The title of this posting is a specific variety of word formation in which letters that stand out are also Roman numerals.  When you put the Roman numerals in descending numeric order, they form a number of some significance.  Figuring out the number is the easy part, but do you know or can you find the name of the word formation?  If so, visit the Reference Desk by February 28th and tell us your answer.  If it's correct, you'll receive a book bag and card holder with keychain. 

Here are some hints:  The answer has ten letters ending in g-r-a-m and can be found in Chapter 10 of The Oxford Guide to Word Games by Tony Augarde.  In that chapter, English essayist and journalist Joseph Addison (1672-1719) is quoted saying this about _ _ _ _ _ _ g-r-a-m-s:  "When therefore we meet with any of these inscriptions, we are not so much to look in 'em for the thought, as for the year of the Lord."  (If you care to work on any puzzles under Mr. Addison's watchful eye, his portrait hangs at the north end of the library's Reference area.)

Here are some other puzzling titles from our collection:

536 Puzzles & Curious Problems by Henry Dudeney

The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems by Martin Gardner

Cracking Codes & Cryptograms for Dummies  by Denise Sutherland and Mark E. Koltko-Rivera

Infuriating Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Paul Sloane and Des Machale

This link lists selected websites from the IPL2 index:  Word Game Websites.

We hope to hand you a prize at the Reference Desk soon.