Line 819:  Playing a game of worlds

My illustrious friend showed a childish predilection for all sorts of word games and especially for so-called word golf.  He would interrupt the flow of a prismatic conversation to indulge in this particular pastime, and naturally it would have been boorish of me to refuse playing with him.  Some of my records are:  hate-love in three, lass-male in four, and live-dead in five (with “lend” in the middle).