A “cruciverbalist” is described as a designer or aficionado of crossword puzzles, or a person who is skilled at solving crosswords. I’ve been part of a team of crossword compilers for the past fifteen odd years, but I have never had the nerve to refer to myself by this fancy Latin term. Part of the reason is probably that I have, to this day, never ever successfully “filled in” a crossword puzzle. (Yes, there is a big difference between “compiling” and “completing” crosswords.)
As a compiler of cryptic puzzles one works with much more than just synonyms and antonyms. I am very fond of the palindrome, which, as you know, is a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backwards as forwards. People have been very creative with palindromes over the years. Everyone knows the sentence “Able was I ere I saw Elba”. Here are a few more. “Mr Owl ate my metal worm”. “Was it a cat I saw?” “Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog”. And what about this one? “A Santa Lived As a Devil At NASA.”
But enough of the palindrome. I want to discuss my favourite word form, the anagram. (If you’ve forgotten: It’s a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.) Are you aware of the fact that Jim Morrison of The Doors used an anagram of his name in the song “L.A.Woman”, calling himself “Mr. Mojo Risin”? Or that Brian Eno’s album Before and After Science includes a song entitled “King’s Lead Hat”, an anagram of the band, Talking Heads?
An anagram for “dormitory” is “dirty room”. “Schoolmaster” becomes “the classroom”. And can you believe that “eleven plus two” is an anagram for “twelve plus one”?
The anagramist’s best-loved canvas is the names of famous people. The lists are endless. Rearrange George Bush and guess what pops up? “He bugs Gore.” Margaret Thatcher turns into “That Great Charmer”. And lastly, my favourite. What do you get if you reshuffle, Adolf Hitler? Nothing less than “Heil, old fart!”
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