South Africa

A wrod in your ear

February 10, 2006 Edition 1

Life's wisdom can be found in anagrams, says wordsmith Anu Garg. "They never lie."I don't know about that, but it is strange that "Presbyterian" can be rearranged to "best in prayer" and "eleven plus two" equals "twelve plus one".

Also, Conrad Smit of Durban's Point makes the topical point that "election results" has an anagram of "lies - let's recount", while "parliament" morphs to "partial men". Most famously, shrewdies have reworked Shakespeare's lines from Hamlet: "To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune . . ?"

That becomes: "In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."

It reminded me of the classic interview with "the man who speaks in anagrams" from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Interviewer: First on the show, we've got a man who speaks entirely in anagrams.

Man: Taht si crreoct.

Interviewer: Do you enjoy it?

Man: I stom certainly od. Revy chum so.

Interviewer: And I believe you're working on an anagram version of Shakespeare?

Man: Sey, sey - taht si crreoct, er - ta the mnemot I'm wroking on The Mating of the Wersh.

Interviewer: The Mating of the Wersh? By William Shakespeare?

Man: Nay, by Malliwi Rapesheake.

Interviewer: And what else?

Man: Two Netlemeng of Verona, Twelfth Thing, The Chamrent of Venice.

Interviewer: Have you done Hamlet?

Man: Thamle. Be ot or bot ne ot, tath is the nestquoi.

Interviewer: And what is your next project?

Man: Ring Kichard the Thrid.

Interviewer: I'm sorry?

Man: A shroe! A shroe! My dingkom for a shroe!

Interviewer: Ah, Ring Kichard, yes. But surely that's not an anagram, that's a spoonerism.

Man: If you're going to split hairs, I'm going to push off. (Exit)

The anagrammies

Some more from a list of "Anagrammy Awards".