[Alternate anagrams include “Puzzle patron, now daily” and “Plow into any rad puzzle.”]
Anagrams are a cornerstone of modern pen-and-paper puzzling.
They make frequent appearances in cryptic (or British-style) crossword clues, and many puzzles and puzzle games — from Anagram Magic Square and Text Twist to Secret Word and Bananagrams — rely heavily on anagrams as an integral part of the solve.
I’ve written about them several times in the past, but for the uninitiated, an anagram is a reordering of the letters in a word to form a new word or phrase. PEALS anagrams into LEAPS, PALES, LAPSE, SEPAL, and PLEAS.
As the old joke goes, “stifle” is an anagram of itself.
But the best anagrams rearrange the letters in a word into something related to that word. Fans of The Simpsons may recall that Alec Guinness anagrams into “genuine class.”
There are numerous examples of great anagrams all over the Internet. Here are a few classics:
The eyes = they see
Clint Eastwood = Old West action
Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one
Dormitory = Dirty room
A decimal point = I’m a dot in place
A gentleman = Elegant man
One of the best online anagram programs out there is hosted by wordsmith.org, and at the top of their page, they remind us that “internet anagram server” anagrams into “I, rearrangement servant.”
You can find some unexpected surprises when you play with anagrams. Did you know that William Shakespeare anagrams into both “I am a weakish speller” and “I’ll make a wise phrase”?
There are entire forums online dedicated to terrific anagrams, some fiendishly clever, others impressively insightful. (Of course, sometimes crafty punctuation makes all the difference.)
The possibilities seem endless when you delve into longer phrases. I’m going to close out this tribute to anagrams with two of the most amazing ones I’ve encountered during my time as a puzzler.
The first involves the iconic line as humanity took its first steps onto the surface of the Moon:
Neil Armstrong: That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
anagrams into…
Thin man ran; makes (a) large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!
[I’ve included both what Neil said and what was broadcast back to Earth. Hence, the A in parentheses in both versions.]
The second takes one of Shakespeare’s best known lines and offers some engagingly meta commentary on the play itself:
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…
anagrams into…
In one of the Bard’s best-thought-of-tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.
So whether you’re playing Scrabble or tackling David L. Hoyt‘s Jumble, anagramming is a worthwhile tool that belongs in every puzzler’s skillset.
Do you have any favorite anagrams, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers? Let me know! I’d love to see them!
By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.
You may be familiar with the board game Schmovie, hashtag games on Twitter, or @midnight’s Hashtag Wars segment on Comedy Central. Well, I decided to host our own wordplay game in honor of TableTop Day.
I received over 100 responses from PuzzleNation and Penny/Dell employees, and I simply had to compile a complete list and share it with you! (I’ve included links for as many puzzles as I could find!)
So, without further ado, please enjoy our feature presentation.
There were even a few TV shows offered — Dora The Exploraword and ACROSS AND DOWNton Abbey — as well as a theater show: The Bookworms of Mormon.
And now, I open the hashtag game up to you, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! Can you come up with a Penny/Dell Puzzle Movie we missed? Message us on Facebook or Twitter! We’d love to see them!
The third annual International TableTop Day was last Saturday, and according to reports across the Internet, it was the most successful and joyous TableTop Day yet! Games were donated by some of the top companies (our friends at Looney Labs and Steve Jackson Games among them) as well as by the folks at Geek & Sundry, and the puzzle game community came together once again to prove how amazing and warm puzzlers and gamers can be.
For the second year in a row, we at PuzzleNation had our own little TableTop Day event with our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles, and it was great fun! Games were played, an insane amount of sugary treats were prepared, snacks were consumed, and fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers were introduced to some terrific games.
I raided my personal puzzle and game collection to provide some choice offerings for my fellow puzzlers, and readers of the blog will no doubt recognize several items from previous product reviews!
(Sadly, a lot of personal favorites had to be excluded because they would take more than 30 minutes to play, like some of the offerings from Cheapass Games and other great companies, and it was a work day. I promise, this is a fraction of my full puzzle and game collection.)
Timeline proved to be one of the biggest hits of the day, because it’s so simple to play and offers endless replay value. (Especially with seven different editions of the game to choose from!)
I also managed to win my first game of Jenga in what seems like a decade!
There was plenty of switching between games as well. Here, a game of Just Desserts immediately followed a round of Bananagrams Wild Tiles!
But that wasn’t all! To include fellow puzzlers who couldn’t attend the event in person, we had our own Hashtag Game running in-house all day. Inspired by both @midnight hashtag games and our friends at Schmovie, we had a contest to create “Penny/Dell Puzzle Movies.”
I’ll be posting ALL of the entries on Friday, but here are a few favorites:
The Scarlet Letterboxes
Schindler’s List-A-Crostic
Double Trouble Indemnity
All in all, it was an awesome time. Hope everyone enjoyed!
The 38th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was this weekend, and puzzlers descended on the Stamford Marriott Hotel in the hopes of putting their puzzly chops to the test in what has been dubbed “the Nerd Olympics.”
The tournament takes place over two days — with six puzzles to solve on Saturday, followed by one on Sunday — and then the championship puzzle, which the top 3 solve on white boards in front of the audience. On Friday and Saturday night, there are often puzzle events, demonstrations, and panels by top puzzlers and figures in the puzzle world as well.
I ventured down to Stamford myself Saturday morning amidst some unexpected snow flurries and sat in with my friends from Penny/Dell Puzzles at their booth.
They were armed to the teeth with tote bags, magazines, pencils, and freebie copies of The Crosswords Club, The Uptown Puzzle Club, Will Shortz’s Sudoku, and some of the tougher Penny Press and Dell Magazines titles. It was a sumptuous buffet of puzzly goodness, to be sure.
Joining me behind the tables were Penny Press proofreader and puzzler Debra Yurschak Rich and PuzzleNation‘s very own Director of Game Development, Fred Galpern, who was on hand to show off the Penny Dell Crosswords App.
We had a few hours before Puzzle #1 would kick off the tournament, so I wandered around, checked out the ballroom where the competition would take place, surveyed the other booths, and chatted with many tournament competitors and puzzlers.
Not only did I get to see friends of the blog like Uptown Crossword Club editor Patti Varol, author and puzzler Eric Berlin, constructor Ian Livengood and Penny Press variety editor Keith Yarbrough, but it was a great opportunity to match names and faces, since I’d had the chance to tweet, email, and otherwise interact with many of them online over the last few years, but never actually met them in person.
Among the folks I got to meet were crossword gentleman Doug Peterson, New York Times Wordplay blogger Deb Amlen, constructor and Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project curator David Steinberg, constructor Joon Pahk, top solver and former champion Ellen Ripstein, Los Angeles Times crossword editor Rich Norris, constructor Alan Olschwang, Evan Birnholz of Devil Cross, top competitor and former champion Tyler Hinman, and New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz.
[Will stops in at the Penny/Dell Puzzles booth, and poses with his namesake titles.]
One of my favorite things about the tournament is the absolute and unabashed puzzle love shown by so many competitors. I saw crossword-patterned sweaters, ties, shirts, and earrings, as well as punny t-shirts of all kinds. One guy even dressed up in full papal regalia, but with a crossword theme!
[Fred poses with the eye-catching Puzzle Pope. In nomine puzzle…]
Finally, it was time for the tournament to begin, so the competitors filed into the ballroom where Will Shortz introduced Puzzle #1, created by Tracy Bennett, which would be a Monday difficulty puzzle.
It’s an excellent warm-up puzzle for competitors, and rarely one that poses a significant challenge. Dan Feyer, reigning five-time champion, set a new tournament record by completing Puzzle #1 in under two minutes. WOW.
But, as it turns out, there was a bit of a kerfuffle surrounding the first puzzle. From the Puzzle Brothers blog:
A weird scoring anomaly took place when the Puzzle 1 results were announced, when a solver named William Hall appeared to have solved Puzzle 1 a full four minutes before Dan Feyer did. Since Dan solved the puzzle in less than two minutes – believed to be an ACPT first – that meant that Hall would have had to do some serious messing with the time-space continuum to finish the puzzle TWO MINUTES BEFORE HE EVEN STARTED.
[I believe I met a third of the names on this list over the course of the day.]
The glitch was soon resolved and Dan Feyer returned to his proper spot at the top of the leaderboard.
Puzzles #2 and #3 (constructed by Joel Fagliano and Merl Reagle, respectively) proceeded without any scoring scandals, and throughout the day, I was getting great insight into the puzzles themselves and the energy of the room with post-puzzle updates from Keith, Patti, Doug, and some of the other competitors.
After a break for lunch, the ballroom filled once more for Puzzle #4, Paula Gamache’s contribution to the tournament. And then, it was time for Puzzle #5.
If you recall my report from last year’s tournament, Puzzle #5 is routinely the toughest puzzle in the tournament. While Brendan Emmett Quigley’s puzzle last year was widely regarded to be a brutally challenging one, Will Shortz said this year’s entry (constructed by Jeff Chen) was “easy for Puzzle #5.” Which is akin to calling something “the friendliest volcano” or “the warmest Eskimo.”
I happened to bump into Dan Feyer outside the ballroom after he completed Puzzle #5, and he jokingly inquired, “Where is everyone?” I looked at him point-blank and replied, “You know exactly where everyone is, Dan!”
Not long after, I received the following text, from another competitor: Puzzle 5. *sad trombone*
The day’s puzzle wrapped up with Puzzle #6, a Lynn Lempel creation that helped set the stage for Sunday’s remaining two crosswords: Patrick Berry’s Puzzle #7 and Byron Walden’s championship closer.
And although I wasn’t present for Sunday’s tournament finale, I continued to get updates from friends and fellow puzzlers throughout the day. When it came time for the top three to solve on their white boards in front of their fellow competitors, a familiar trio of names were listed: Dan Feyer, Tyler Hinman, and Howard Barkin.
Due to his performance over the previous seven puzzles, Dan began with a 5-second head start over Tyler. And that made all the difference.
Watch as Dan and Tyler race to the finish:
Only a half-second separated Dan and Tyler’s times, a nail-biter in ANY competition, but Dan Feyer locked up his sixth straight ACPT championship!
Not only did he top Tyler’s streak of 5 straight wins, but he’s put himself in contention to match Jon Delfin’s record of seven tournament victories next year! Names like Anne Erdmann, Francis Heaney, Joon Pahk, and Al Sanders were not far behind.
And out of more than 560 competitors, friends of the blog had a strong showing themselves! David Steinberg ranked 36th overall, and was named the Division C champion, the youngest ever!
Patti Varol placed 109th, and only a few steps behind her was Eric Berlin at 112th! Keith Yarbrough placed 177th, and Doug Peterson was the top performer in our little cabal of puzzlers, delivering some outstanding solves and placing 14th overall!
(In case anyone was curious, the Puzzle Pope placed 463rd.)
I’ve never experienced anything quite like the ACPT, but I’m definitely going back next year. Congratulations to all the competitors!
By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.
And in today’s post, I’m returning to the subject of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament!
The 38th annual tournament kicks off tomorrow, and I’m definitely excited to be attending for the very first time! I’ll be sitting in with my pals at the Penny Press/Dell Magazines booth, offering some great puzzles and meeting topnotch competitors and constructors alike.
How many PuzzleNationers and fellow puzzle fiends are attending? Come by, I’d love to meet you!
Not only that, but Fred, our Director of Game Development, will be on hand to show off the Penny Dell Crosswords App!
This week, the names of the constructors contributing puzzles to the tournament this year were revealed, and it’s a terrific mix of first-class constructors. Some you may know, some you may not!
Merl Reagle (who masterminded Google’s 100th Anniversary of the Crossword puzzle) is contributing, along with prolific puzzlers Lynn Lempel, Joel Fagliano (currently Will Shortz’s assistant at The New York Times), and Jeff Chen (XWordInfo‘s webmaster)!
They’re joined by constructors Tracy Bennett, Paula Gamache, Patrick Berry, and Byron Walden (a Saturday NYT regular known for some seriously tough puzzles)! It’s entirely possible that the diabolical Puzzle #5 at this year’s tournament will be a Walden original.
Not only that, but several friends of the blog will be in attendance, like Penny Press variety editor Keith Yarbrough, constructor Ian Livengood, puzzler and author Eric Berlin, crossword gentleman Doug Peterson, and Uptown Puzzle Club editor Patti Varol!
Tuesday’s blog post will be a recap of the tournament, complete with pictures, but stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook this weekend for bonus posts and previews!
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is just over two weeks away — Friday March 27 through Sunday March 29! — and this year is promising to be something special.
After seven years in Brooklyn, New York, the tournament is returning to Stamford, Connecticut, the tournament’s previous home for many years.
Every year, constructors and crossword fans alike test their puzzly mettle (and pencil points) against time and nerves as they solve topnotch puzzles as quickly and accurately as possible.
Last year, Dan Feyer won his fifth consecutive tournament, tying the record set by fellow competitor Tyler Hinman. Will he go six for six this year and move one step closer to meeting Jon Delfin’s remarkable record of seven tournament wins?
But there’s more going on than just the tournament! It’s a weekend dedicated to puzzle goodness of all kinds.
In the past, there have been talent shows, puzzle challenges, displays of live puzzle creation, team solving games, scavenger hunts, crossword songs, film viewings (including the Wordplay documentary), and performances of puzzle magic by David Kwong.
This is my first year attending the tournament, and I’m excited not only to witness the event firsthand, but to meet many of the names in puzzles I’ve interviewed and gotten to know over the last few years.
And I won’t be the only member of the PuzzleNation Crew at ACPT this year, as Fred, our Director of Game Development, will be there to show off the Penny Dell Crosswords App and talk shop with fellow puzzlers!
Plus, several friends of the blog will be in attendance, like Penny Press variety editor Keith Yarbrough, crossword gentleman Doug Peterson, and Uptown Puzzle Club editor Patti Varol.
For more information or to sign up and test your puzzle skills, click here! (You can participate online or by mail!)
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