Anagrams
Introduction
As you probably know, an anagram is formed by rearranging the letters from some “subject” text (such as a word, phrase, or name) to make another meaningful expression. An oft-quoted example is
- Dormitory = Dirty room. (T.H., Complications, 1899)
Under the cardinal rule of anagramming, each letter of the original subject must appear exactly once in the anagram.
The sidebar explains the symbols used here.
All the anagrams below were written by Alan Yoshioka.
Categories
Arts & Entertainment
| Ashkenaz: A
Festival of New Yiddish Culture = Aha! A klezfusion event with saucy fiddlers. |
|
| * | Georg Friedrich
Handel’s oratorio Messiah = Oh, sir, did I hear more great choirs of angels? |
| Georg Friedrich
Handel’s oratorio Messiah = His richer arias delight me for good reason. |
|
| [Character actor] Linus Roache ~ in such a role. |
|
| Canada Day
fireworks show = And afar we saw kids cry, “Ooh!” |
|
| A Streetcar Named
Desire by Tennessee Williams = Me, I wince as Stanley berates elder sister and me. |
|
| World champion
hurdler Perdita Felicien ~ tripped in race, fell. Lord, how human! I cried. |
Politics & Current Events
| * | Sumatra = Traumas |
| [Then mayor of
Toronto] Arthur Eggleton = Run large ghetto. |
|
| The American
President Ronald Wilson Reagan = I intone: scrap this Red era and one German wall! |
|
| American President
Ronald Wilson Reagan = So I denied large new Iran–Contra arms plan. |
|
| The Toronto
Anarchist Bookfair = It’s a booth for the Ontario crank. |
Potpourri
| New Year’s
Resolutions ~ are surely not wise, son. |
|
| Garage sale
bargain-hunters ~ snag a rug in here & brag, “A steal!” |
Publishing & Wordplay
| Facing the Text
by Do Mi Stauber = If they bug me to index abstract. |
|
| Eats, Shoots and
Leaves – The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation by Lynne Truss = Try to observe latest tutor as she pounces on a colon put haphazardly in a sentence. |
Religion
| [Alan’s first
bilingual
anagram. The second English sentence is a loose (dynamic equivalence,
anyone?) translation of the declaration Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub
tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea,
literally “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”] Domine, non sum dignus. = Men sin. God, I’m unsound. |
|
| The
Five Glorious Mysteries = These very religious motifs. |
|
| * | Love your enemies = Use ye no more evil. |
| Reign, Master, on ~ Easter morning! |
|
| [Luke 1:28 (NRSV)] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.” = The Virgin Mary to the angel: “The Son arose of His Dad? A wonder, I deduce!” |