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This is what (in my head, at least) passes for "the life of the mind." It's possible that all this backward nonsense is causally connected to my deteriorating memory. (My wife just reminded me I liked a movie that I don't recall even seeing.) Maybe this habit is a form of verbal yoga—the mental equivalent of twisting myself into the lotus position in order to keep limber.
Is there hope? Is there a way to make me stop observing that Smithsonian backward yields the name of a Gaelic deli (Nainosh Tim's)?
The only way I have been able to cut back is by, instead, anagrammatizing like a cat naif. I mean, fanatic.
Early results are promising.The name of the Mexican food chain Del Taco is easily rearranged to spell "located." Home Depot? "O, the moped!"
But then, there's "rancid." I've been trying for too long to get an alternate six-letter word out of this perfectly reasonable collection of two vowels and four consonants. I want a single word, not "Narc I.D." or "car din." So far I have been unsuccessful, but I'm working on it. Next week I'm planning a long drive in the country.
Ellis Weiner is the author of the mysteries Drop Dead, My Lovely and The Big Boat to Bye-Bye, as well as the co-author of Yiddish With Dick and Jane, Yiddish with George and Laura and How to Raise a Jewish Dog.
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Comments (6)
So, I'm not the only one who does that! I also use a mirror image to reverse the letters, too. A 'b' becomes a 'd', and the reverse. One of my t-shirts has "Books, cats, Life is good" Or, "stac skood, boog si efil".
Posted by Arvin Chaikin on April 30,2009 | 01:00 AM
I've done this for years, and have several variations... Sometimes I switch the first letters of each word in a sentence and only my closest friends know what I'm saying. It's not bad, is it?
Posted by Curtis Heath on October 5,2008 | 08:03 PM
i thought i was the only one who did this! one of my favorites is driving past an auto wash & giving it the exotic greeting, "hsaw otua!"
Posted by Jessica on August 30,2008 | 11:45 AM
I don't believe I'll ever set foot in a Bolton's store again.
Posted by Don Gehan on May 18,2008 | 05:15 PM
I was thinking on rancid.. As in "rancid dancir", a reject from "Dancing with the Stars"
Posted by Paul Burke on April 2,2008 | 07:56 PM
After many attemps to make a word from rancid (carnid, cranid, acrind....) I finally came up with dracin. This is a red resin that is the essential essence of dragon's blood. Not a common word, but a word nonetheless. Now I guess I'll have to find another scrambled bit of letters for my brain to rearrange.
Posted by Tanya Welborn on April 1,2008 | 01:52 PM