Fanagrams:
Humor, curiosity, doggerel and
other things uniquely human
elcome to Fanagrams, a website for those who love to fiddle around with words. Fanagrams were inspired by my mother Fan Brown, whose clever wit and worn pink rhyming dictionary have been constant inspirations.
There are three different cateogires for you to chose from - the Fanagrams themselves which are humorous personal essays combined with puzzle poems for you to solve, Fanacies which are puzzle poems alone, and Fandangles where you are quizzed on your knowledge of idioms that enrich our language.
Enjoy!
Fanagrams
Fanagrams consist of a humorous personal essays followed by a companion puzzle poem. The concept of fanagrams was created during a disatrous airport run where somehow my car alarm went off. With no other options, I found myself driving home with the alarm blaring, much to the growing annoyance and emerging road rage of my fellow travelers. The car eventually stalled and as I waited for help, I searched in the car for something to keep me busy. I found this odd book on the mating habits of animals, and found this a particularly fertile topic for puzzle poems. I combined these poems with a description of this harrowing experience, and Voila! Fanagrams were borne.
Each essay describes some sort of weirdness or oddity. The missing words in poem that follows are anagrams (i.e. share the same letters). The number of dashes indicates the number of letters in the words. Your job is to hopefully enjoy the essay, and then solve the puzzle based on the above rules and the context of the poem.
Fanacies represent the marriage of doggerel and anagrams, creating a puzzle poem. The missing words in each poem are all anagrams (i.e. share the same letters like post, stop, spot, etc). The number of dashes indicate the number of letters in the words. In each poem, one of the missing words will rhyme with either the preceding or following line, giving you a big hint. Your job is to solve the missing words, using the above rules and the context of poem. Below is an example of a solved Fanagram:
One of the TALES of the French Revolution
Was Marie Antoinette's clever solution
When the peasants were starving and they had to STEAL
Even the LEAST little crumb to make a meal.
She said, "Let them eat cake, forget about STALE bread,"
This is right from the horse's mouth. You better mind your P's and Q's or someone may steal your thunder. Each idiom is presented with four possble derivations. One of them is correct. Can you guess?
