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Month: December 2016

  • Let’s Resolve to Aim High!

    One of our recent subscribers to Notes from Stonehaven is a reader named Maroussia Roy. Since she likes anagrams, I puttered around to see what gems I might unearth from her name. Turns out the letters in “Maroussia Roy” rearrange to spell: “Your aim soars.” Perfect! How fitting might it be if each of us…

  • Our 30th Ana(versary)gram!

    Our 30th Ana(versary)gram!

    I can’t let 2016 escape without noting that this was the year Cheri and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Three adventure-filled decades ago, we committed ourselves to making our union “as a fortress for well-being and salvation”. That’s how Baha’u’llah describes it in the Prayer for Marriage. That, for us, has been the way it…

  • One Word: Antigram

    An antigram is an expression formed by rearranging the letters of another expression to mean its opposite. For example, “fluster” rearranges to spell “restful”. Other classic examples: “listen” = “silent”; “antagonist” = “not against”; “earliest” = “arise late”. The word “antigram” is short for “anti-anagram” – an anagram being any word or phrase formed by…

  • Are Russian Hackers Interfering With Gary’s Anagrams?

    Are Russian Hackers Interfering With Gary’s Anagrams?

    For some time, I’ve suspected foreign agents of covertly tampering with my anagrams. Why? Maybe so you’ll vote for competing anagrams by my Twitter buddy Christopher Davis (@TweakYourPC). Maybe just to stir up vandalism. Who cares? Point is, our CIA is now “confident” that the letters in “This anagram was HACKED by Vladimir Putin” rearrange to spell…

  • A Grumpy Old Anagram!

    A favorite quote of mine, from the 1993 movie Grumpy Old Men: “The first ninety years or so, they go by pretty fast … Then one day you wake up and you realize that you’re not eighty-one anymore.” – Burgess Meredith These words are spoken in the movie by the “Grandpa Gustafson” character (Meredith). I…

  • It Never Goes Without Saying

    Some things just go without saying. But here’s a funny thing about each one of those things: Whatever goes without saying always becomes, sooner or later, the single most important thing that must be said. Let’s therefore try an experiment: Let’s each think of something that just goes without saying. And just say it. How…

  • How to Fact-Check Gary Matthews (or Anyone Else)

    How to Fact-Check Gary Matthews (or Anyone Else)

    One thing I love about today’s Internet is how easily you can fact-check anything I say. Don’t believe me about something? Fine! Fire up Google (or any other search engine). Type in the topic. Seconds later you’re studying it in Wikipedia, watching it on YouTube, reading all about it in respected news outlets and academic…

  • Why Gary Matthews Shuns Politics

    There aren’t many people for whom I’ll cheerfully take a bullet. One of them is my friend Tim. He’s among the smartest folks I know. He has really good instincts. His opinions matter to me – a lot. The following note from Tim thus caught my attention: “I’m happy to receive emails about points of view.…

  • How the Post Office Could Have Saved Itself

    The US Postal Service had the chance, early on, to become a provider of email. This was during the Internet’s early days. Few people at that time foresaw the importance email would attain. Neither, it seems, did the Postal Service. In fact, the Postal Service saw email as a threat, not as an opportunity. If…

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