SCRABBLE

I just have to share this. It'd be selfish not to. I learn this from a book, Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis on the world of competitive Scrabble players which takes me ages to finish. I labour because this book, even though fascinating, is too dry to sustain my interest beyond 10 pages per reading that I have to interlace it with fiction. Since I have started this book, I have finished the exhilirating Carol Shields’ Republic of Love, attempted but decided not to finish the depressing Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, and now in the midst of the beautiful Pulitzer prize winner The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (the film adaptation which Ebert conferred 4 stars has just been added to my list of must-have DVDs). Ok, coming back to the excerpts:

An anagram is a word or a phrase that is formed by transposing the letters of another word or phrase, Eg: MAIDSERVANT, ANIMADVERTS. ERIC CLAPTON, NARCOLEPTIC

The word anagrams itself anagrams to the Latin ars magna, or great art.

Anagramming can be about turning words into apposite phrases. Dimitri Borgmann, the father of modern wordplay, offers anagrams for:

VILLANOUSNESS – an evil soul’s sin
CONVERSATION – voices rant on
DESPERATION – a rope ends it

He also lists antigrams – words and phrases with opposite meanings, such as:

EVANGELISTS – evil’s agents
MILITARISM – I limit arms

Consider the following:

BRITNEY SPEARS – PRESBYTERIANS – best in prayers
President Clinton of the USA – to copulate, he finds interns.

The cleverest of all: 11 + 2 = 12 + 1 ; Eleven + Two = Twelve + One

Now to the three, occasionally four people who read my blog; I have one travel set and 1 deluxe set slowly rotting from want of use. When are you free for a match? We will try to emulate the professionals on one thing, i.e. to use the chess clock and each player keeps his/her game below 25 minutes, howzat?