Mike Rios -- Reverse errors to persevere and
Errors prosper over beer
Scott Purdy -- Not one jot, not one tittle
William Waite -- Is a sea of sequoias aqueous?
Tobiah Waldron -- Ah, boat hobo, a hot bath, tho a bit too taboo to
a Bahai abbot, that!
Yael m -- In the net, this site is the sunshine ; it's the thin, unseen
tune thee see.
W. Pulley -- A slain man is a male sin. - Sam Neill (Seminal)
and He is risen -- Amen (Seminar)
Doug Barret -- "Alas, all real leaders need dread." from the letters
SNARLED
"The wheat that we eat, we weigh at eight." from the letters AWEIGHT
"Pale seal pups prepare a leap." from the letters ASPRULE
And the winner, Craig Kaspar -- I am Sam! Sam-I-Am!
(Seuss is mine amanuensis!)
Entries sent, I reinstate an asinine interest in Internet entertainers.
An internist: "I reiterate - intense iratensess is restraint-resistant.
I assess insensate nastiness as errant entreaties: 'Assist! Stresses are
a strain...' "
The best book in print on wordplay is Making the Alphabet Dance, compiled by Ross Eckler. I recommend it highly. The best bits of the long-running magazine Word Ways is compiled in this book.
Some Palindromes. World Wide Words.
The National Puzzler's League is the leader in English wordplay. Some examples:
TRANSPOSALS
secondary qualities / quasi-considerately -- Guy
Jacobson / Xemu
nondictatorialness / condensation trails -- Guy Jacobson
/ Xemu
Leatherstocking's / shoestring tackle -- Guy Jacobson
/ Xemu
academic honors / monosaccharide -- Ed Pegg
Jr. / Ceirwn
Supreme Court / computer user
-- Ed Pegg Jr. / Ceirwn
Chippendales / pencil-shaped
-- Guy Jacobson / Xemu
orchestra pits / stratospheric
-- Joshua Kosman / Trazom
company store / compensatory
-- Guy Jacobson & Trip Payne / Xemu & Qaqaq
LETTER BANKS
misanthrope / one man's meat is another man's poison -- Ed Pegg
Jr. / Ceirwn
pratincoles / electrostatic precipitation / international air transport
association --Ed Pegg Jr. / Ceirwn
organist / Air on a G String -- Ed Pegg
Jr. / Ceirwn
antique shop/ the spanish inquisition -- Arthur Schulman & Marjorie
Friedman / Ai&Mangie
atrophic / chiropractor / hippocratic oath -- David Tuller /QED
Lance Ito / Lincoln Continental -- Marcia Hearst / Pen Gwyn
contrawise / Sir Isaac Newton / worst case scenario -- Edward Wolpow
/ Newrow
soaking wet / It takes two to tango -- Joel Hess / Endgame
fly casting / statistically significant -- David Tuller & Guy Jacobson
/ QED & Xemu
hysterical / celestial hierarchy -- Eugene Ulrich / Ulk
urbanites / Better Business Bureau
dangerous / Dungeons and Dragons
dismantle / Adelaide's Lament
rodential / trial and error / International Date Line
discrepant / piece de resistance
great minds / Sara and I Are Getting Married
nightmares / The Eastern Enigma
rematching / cigarette machine / Magic: the Gathering
wins the day / And That's the Way It Is
chapournets / The House at Pooh Corner
filamentous / Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
night flower / Telling Her Where to Get Off
incomputable / multiplication table
mothers-in-law / woman is the lesser man
CHANGEOVERS
Chuck E Cheese / Chuckchee Sea -- Craig Hamilton / Crax
PHONETIC PARING
skewbald / cueball -- Guy Jacobson / Xemu
quarantine / warranty -- Guy Jacobson / Xemu
ANAGRAMS -- First, take a look at
Here is an article written by Phil
Cohen:
I recently took a look at the alt.anagrams newsgroup, whose topic
is just what it says. (It also slides occasionally into palindromes, there
being no newsgroup for them, though the Three-Letter Acronym group alt.tla
is sometimes used for the purpose.) These anagrams are for display rather
than solving, so they don't lay great stress on apposition. Popular subjects
are the anagramming of the name of anyone who asks for it, and nastily
anagramming spammers' names and pitches, because they asked for it. The
categories in the monthly 'Anagrammy' award, voted by the readers, are
General, Rude, Recycled Spam, Long (> 60 letters), and Name. 'Rude' (dirty-word)
anagrams are quite common, if that concerns you. Commercial anagram-creation
programs like William Tunstall-Pedoe's Anagram Genius and Neil J. Ravenking's
Namegram are popular tools. A couple I liked from the last month: 'brief
entertainment, epochs ago' (^3 ^10 2 ^5 *7) by Earle Jones, and 'a lewd
loony' (*5 *5), codiscovered by Tunstall-Pedoe and Dave Linbury. The latter
has a site for illustrated celebrity anagrams, called Screaming Betrayal,
that may turn into a book that does for anagrams what books like *Go Hang
a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!* do for palindromes. See www.wwnet.net/~d_alan.
I posted some of our best ones from January
and February Enigma. NPL presence there seems to be nil, aside from a mention
in the FAQ and a post from Gab-F last year. Krakers@my-dejanews.com wrote
of Blossom's asyndeton annie: 'I "hate" Rosebud but nominate him/her for
best general anagram of the month for "Not 'and', yes?" Let us know how
to reach him/her in case of a win.<g>' Richard Brodie wrote, "I'll second
that nomination. At last a practical use for anagrams--memory aids for
building esoteric vocabulary! (makes for real good puzzles, since the solution
is not likely to be included in generators' word lists). Here's another
in the same vein, with two clues: A hint: mean, hard. Hard, anti-"ha" men.'
(13) (This had been done three times before, according to *New Anagrammasia*,
but I think the first version above is the best.) My reply: 'I don't think
it's fair to regular a.a. people to allow nonregulars to compete, particularly
when, as in this case, I'm quoting my selection of the best of several
months of the Enigma editor's selection of the best anagrams submitted.
But I will pass along your kind words.'
Later: true phonetic palindromes are almost
nonexistent and require knowledge of how hsilgnE works (e.g., 'you', taped
and played backwards, sounds like 'we'). But Karsten Johansson has apparently
come up with a rather long one. >From his a.a. post: 'On my web page, I
posted a poem that is an audio-palindrome. The RealAudio clip is me reading
the poem forward, and then it is flipped and replayed so you hear it again
backward. In both directions it says the same thing. You can hear that
at http://members.xoom.com/ksaj/ksajplay.html about halfway down the page.
I'm giving the page link instead of just the audio link so you can read
the poem as you listen to it. It is much easier to understand when you
can read along with it.' It's also at http://www.aracnet.net/ksaj/ksajplay.html.
He later gave the poem:
'When I wonder why
What's never been's never been so
We would lie when we say,
"Yes, you know we all love you"
What's never been's never been so
Hell, we're nowhere now.
I wrote that as an experiment one night after work. I guess I was bored.
It almost sounds like it means something. :)'
I suspect an English accent is essential for
this.
And gson@guava.araneus.fi (Andreas Gustafsson)
wrote, 'Finnish is also well suited for constructing multi-word palindromes.
A popular radio show "Alivaltiosihteeri" features two weekly palindromes
of a humourous nature; you will find an archive containing 680 of those
(and growing) at http://www.hiljaiset.sci.fi/bands/avs/pali_alk.htm.'
More anagrams (including ambies): I can't
fire semen, cutey doll (4 8 11) (Richard Brodie). Nice, right-wing monster
(*6 *6 *8) (William Tunstall-Pedoe). Screwing the minority longer; I control
enemy right-wingers (*6 *6 *5 *8) (WT-P). Lay of Di; dead! (*4 *2 *5) Gore,
spittle (^11) (Meyran Kraus; native language German, yet). New toy-tramp.
(^6 ^5) (MK). Free his knight (^3 ^6 ^4) (MK). Tony's sham tribute - 'Ciao,
ciao, Emperor!' (*1 4 2 4 *6, 3 2 6 3) (Larry Brash). Elan in Transit,
Inc.? Ol! (^11 ^8) (Mick Tully). I land earliest! (^5 ^8) (MT). Sanctify
rockets (*7 *5 *3) (EJ). Real dog and crumbs (1 *2*6'1 6) (MK).
And here are some which, for various reasons,
I don't want to present without answers: Annual aid? Darn! We panic at
risk! (India and Pakistan - Nuclear War?) (LB). Physician assessors coin
transparent idiocy ('Princess Di Assassination Conspiracy Theory') (LB).
Duties, Monica? Eat faster! (United States of America) (M. Tully). Paris?
Nice,slow and safe! (Diana, Princess of Wales). (MT). Enterprising, negative
wretch (Representative Newt Gingrich) (thinkanddo@aol.com). We seek out
your money. Downplay lie. IOU? Hell! (Would you like to earn money while
you sleep?) (Doug Ackerman) (a spamagram). Oh, nasty tartan politics (Scottish
National Party) (WT-P). Crude 'n' trashy (Datsun Cherry) (MT). Indelibly
trash (British Leyland) (MT). Going up? Very dramatic! (Viagra impotency
drug) (MT). Bit sicker? Hit WC. (Chiswick Bitter) (MT, obviously from the
UK). Circulate manure (American culture) (LB, I think).
Incidentally, a.a. also led me to this amusing
site, where I must admit it took me a couple of minutes to realize
the secret: http://pw2.netcom.com/~sleight/rabbit1.html.