Foolish Anagrams

Several years ago, my office mate, Jeff Davidson, and I got on a word-puzzle kick and we discovered an anagram engine on the web (now located at http://wordsmith.org/anagram). April 1st was coming up and we decided it would be fun to replace the nameplate of everyone in the office (about 35 people at the time) with an anagram of their name for the day -- a nice, clean practical joke. It took a little doing, even with help from the engine. For some people we had to try different variations like using Dave instead of David, including their middle initial, and/or adding a title like Mr., and so forth.

JARGON SLICE
Craig L. Jones

SONIC GERM JAR
Mr. Craig Jones

Then, it was just a matter of printing them up on card stock (we used something like 72pt type for the anagram with the original name centered underneath it in 18pt) and swapping them out for the real nameplates the night before.

INVADE MY FJORD, SERF?!?
Mr. Jeffrey Davidson

Of course, we stashed the real nameplates in Walter’s office along with other incriminating evidence. (Walter, you see, was even more famous for wordplay than the two of us.)

LET WAR RISE!
Walter Reis

Well, the joke was on us, because nobody saw them. One of the first people to arrive in the office that morning was a V.P. with a bug up his butt who didn’t think the anagrams were funny. (I’m sure he didn’t even recognize them for what they were.) He promptly tore them all down and put the real nameplates back up, mumbling about the company expecting visitors in the office that day (not true). Eventually, someone rescued the torn-down anagrams out of the trash and Jeff and I saw a number of them taped to people’s monitors by the end of the day. Oh, well.

If you try this yourself, you’re bound to get a better reception than we did. If, in your efforts, you come up with any real gems, please post a comment here. I can always use a good laugh.