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Category: Anagrams

  • 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…

  • Does Gary Matthews Really Cut His Own Hair With a Vacuum Cleaner?

    Does Gary Matthews Really Cut His Own Hair With a Vacuum Cleaner?

    Short answer: Yes! I cut my own hair – and yes, with a vacuum cleaner. The slightly longer, just slightly more precise answer is that I use a vacuum cleaner attachment called a Flowbee. I can hardly believe this works. And I can even less believe that I’m owning up to it. Here’s the story:…

  • Two Words: Dependent / Dependant

    Is it dependent or dependant? Perhaps either one? And what does this have to do with smoking hippopotamuses? First, the grammar gremlin: To be dependent (with an “e”) is to rely on, or be supported by, something or someone. Maybe I’m dependent, for example, on coffee to get me going in the morning. In British…

  • The Healing Power of Anagrams

    The Healing Power of Anagrams

    Cheri and I benefit from the work of two exceptionally gifted healers: Dr. Rocio Huet, our primary-care physician; and Dr. Craig Hennie, our chiropractor. I’m therefore pleased to note that the letters in “Rocio Huet, healer” rearrange to spell “Hoorah! Elite cure”. And that those in “Doctor Craig Hennie” also spell out “condition recharge”. In…

  • What’s Your Favorite Color?

    What’s Your Favorite Color?

    What’s your favorite color? Why do you like it? Mine is blue. It soothes me. Not that blue is the only color I like. Red excites me – especially those deep maroon shades. In winter, I crave the deep lush green of midsummer. There really aren’t many colors I don’t like. But always I come…

  • Contribute a Verse (Thanks, Dev!)

    Contribute a Verse (Thanks, Dev!)

    Contribute a verse! That’s the message from my friend and fellow blogger, Dev Samaddar. So I’ll try. (Read on!) But first, some background: Dev’s irked by the hype he’s hearing lately about “being unique” and “developing your own style”. He thinks there’s way too much emphasis on this notion. He challenges it on his website,…

  • The Most Romantic Valentine City

    Happy Valentine’s Day from America’s Most Consistently Romantic City — Knoxville, Tennessee, home of “Notes from Stonehaven”.  Okay, so I had to weasel-word that (with “consistently”) in order to justify the “most” boast. Technically, Knoxville was bumped this year from first to third place by the new champ, Alexandria, Virginia. Congratulations, Alexandria. Don’t get used…

  • Jonah Miller’s “Shrill, Empathic Joys”

    Jonah Miller’s “Shrill, Empathic Joys”

    You do know I’m a science geek, right? The only problem being, I know very little about actual science! It’s a field – or rather, a collection of fields – for which I have no formal training, no math foundation, no research experience. What I do instead is read obsessively – books, magazines, blogs, and…

  • One Word: Vex

    One Word: Vex

    I’m fond of the word “vex”. My recent report on pangrams reminded me of this fondness. You’ll recall that a pangram is any sentence (shorter the better) that contains every letter of the alphabet at least once. Since working “v” and “x” into the same sentence can be a vexing challenge, it’s no wonder pangram…

  • One Word: Pangram

    One Word: Pangram

    You all know I love anagrams – those wonderful phrases created by rearranging the letters of one thing to spell something else. Like when I scramble the letters of “Gary Leland Matthews” to spell “sadly elegant warmth” (and lots of other things – most of them unflattering but hilarious). Until a few days ago, however,…