Anagram movie reviews

Poundstone's on a roll!

SHUTTER ISLAND = HINT: STARS DUEL

SHUTTER ISLAND = DENIALS / TRUTHS

ALICE IN WONDERLAND = LEWD NONLINEAR ACID

SHUTTER ISLAND = ARTLESS ID HUNT

SHUTTER ISLAND = INSULTED TRASH

Anagrammin'

I. INFIELD and INFIDEL are anagrams!

II. Poundstone: movie anagrams.

Dizzies Anagrams Service™ for Thursday, October 23, 2008

Lydia Davis = Daily Divas

Income Tax = Mexico Tan

An IV-VI Bloodmark

Not sure why this came up on my Gmail—but it's interesting, a Wii thing for your guitar. I wouldn't post it here...except that the guitarist's band is called Vivian Darkbloom! (And they have a song called "Saved by Science Fiction.")

Neh Neh Nehs

In today's NYT, Jon Caramanica writes: "[T]he songs Karen O, the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, performed as part of her cumbersomely named side project Native Korean Rock & the Fishnets were anything but joyful, teeming with heartbreak and the residue of love gone sour."

I didn't realize she was part Korean, though I've idly wondered about her ethnic background; the "O" suggests the popular Korean surname "Oh," though in this case it actually stands for Orzoleck (she is part Polish).

But: Reading the Times piece...and looking at that unwieldy side-project name, I realize that the answer has been hiding in plain sight—"Karen O" is an anagram for...

KOREAN!

* * *

More Koreana: I gab about Personal Days with Voice of America's Korean service.

The gram-ies

Burt on anagrams at Harriet:

The most famous acrostic in contemporary poetry is probably Paul Muldoon's "Capercaillies," a stanzaic poem about a romance gone bitter whose stanzas spell out "IS THIS A NEW YORKER POEM OR WHAT?" It's a prank, but it's not just a prank, since (as often with Muldoon from that period) the intricate games are a sign of frustration, even exhaustion, with simpler attempts at sincerity, collaboration, or connection of a kind that other people will understand.

Some new pangrams for you to try! The estimable Richard Polt adds a few of his own (in the comments), including the timeless "J.Q. Vandz struck my big fox whelp."