Welcome the 3rd annual Grand Anagrammy Awards Presentation. The Grand Anagrammy Awards are the culmination of the last 12 months of the Anagrammy Awards. All the winners from each month in every category compete from the chance to win the Big One, a Grand Anagrammy Award. This year there have been a new record number of awards - 22, as there have been some new awards and a three-way tie in one category. This was the best of the Grand Anagrammies and there was much excitement and a little controversy (as I will mention below). The categories have, as you would expect at this level of competition, have been closely fought and some cliff-hanger finishes have occurred. In recent months, there has been some minor bending of the rule about organising friends and family to vote for your anagrams. As they made little difference to the ultimate outcomes in November and December, I let it pass without comment to the group, but discussed it privately with Richard Grantham. I clarified the FAQ, that in blatant cases, I would not accept the votes. In retrospect, I should have also announced that in a separate post to the group. During the Grand Anagrammies, four votes were received from one email address, but using 4 different names. Nothing wrong with that. However, the voting was so strongly similar (but not identical) in each batch, that I suspected collusion. Votes clearly benefited one member and, somewhat surprisingly, myself in the Long Spam, a category that contained much better anagrams than mine. The member involved is above suspicion, especially as his own votes were vastly different to the four above and did not favour his own anagrams. However, because of the closeness of most of the categories, I believed that these votes unfairly skewed the results. As a result, I have discarded these four votes. I hope that this does not detract from the fact this Grand Anagrammy has been a very exciting event. Voter turnout was excellent with a final tally of 32 accepted votes. Here are the winners............. ----------------------- THE GENERAL CATEGORY This category is always closely fought each month, as it collects the most nominations. However, among the finalist, Jaybur's lovely little gem quickly secured a handy lead and kept it to the end. I had all but forgotten this great anagram, until I was putting this list together last month. Votes were relatively evenly spread over the other 11 anagrams, including four from Tom Myers. As one will see as the results unfold, having several of your anagrams in the final can work against you. 1st. Jaybur with: 27 Male chauvinism. = I'm such a vile man. 2nd. Janet Muggeridge with: 20 Anti-depressants= Nastiness, depart! 3rd. Dan Fortier with: 19 Centenarian = Near ancient. ----------------------- THE ENTERTAINMENT CATEGORY Now this was close! Any one of five anagrams could have won this. There was a strong start from Mey Kraus and a strong finish from Tom Myers (who had four starters), but Art Day hung in and won by one point. Art has a good history in the Grand Anagrammy, with a close win in last year's General Category. 1st. Art Day with: 21 The Penthouse centerfold = Unclothed "pets" often here. Eq 2nd. Tom Myers with: 20 Letterman Tonight = Late night torment. Eq 2nd. Meyran Kraus with: 20 Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner = Try a cartoon duel where none die! ----------------------- THE TOPICAL CATEGORY As one might expect, anagrams in the Topical Category from the latter part of the year tend to do better, as they are fresher in our minds. However, that fact does not explain the success of the winner here. It was clearly the best and would have won even if it occurred 12 months ago. When I nominated it back in October, I said it was the best topical anagram that I had seen. The voters agreed. Well done, Rick, on your first Grand Anagrammy. See, we do read your posts! 1st. Rick Rothstein with: 38 The Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic = Damning evil policy, Serbs voted asshole out. 2nd. ID Letterman with: 32 Manual recount = Unclear amount. 3rd. Richard Brodie with: 26 Russia turns down British and American submarine rescue offers. = Reds ruin it for crew: barbarous, inhuman minds refuse assistance. ----------------------- THE RUDE CATEGORY This ended up being quite close with Mey passing Rick in the last batch of votes. This was certainly one of my favourite anagrams this year and I quoted it often at work. 1st. Meyran Kraus with: 32 Inflammatory Bowel Disease = My ass blew fire, I moaned a lot. 2nd. Rick Rothstein with: 30 I please her vagina = I have a large penis. 3rd. Richard Grantham with: 18 Large breasts = Great, braless. ----------------------- THE SPAM CATEGORY This is very much a Grantham-Brash-Kraus affair, each with , two, four, and six finalists respectively. Again, having the most anagrams in the final is no guarantee of success, as Mey and I found here. Richard was strong throughout with, interestingly, the shortest (and funniest) spamagram of the bunch. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 37 These girls are barely legal. = The "girls" are really beagles. 2nd. Richard Grantham with: 27 My White Cotton Panties are Rolled Down Over My Firm Tan Thighs! And My Knees are Up Over My Head!! Guess What You Can See? [snip] 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 25 MAKE SURE YOUR RETURN ADDRESS IS ON YOUR ENVELOPE IN CASE OF ANY MAIL PROBLEMS! [snip] ----------------------- THE LONG SPAM CATEGORY Again, the Kings of Spam lined up to contest the first Long Spam Grand Anagrammy. Richard had eight starters, Mey had two and David Bourke of myself has one each. On this occasion, it did not work against Richard, as his sheer talent for this genre won him the first three places. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 26 ---DIRECTIONS---FOR HOW TO POST TO NEWSGROUPS---[snip] 2nd. Richard Grantham with: 25 Here are the 4 easy steps to success:[snip] 3rd. Richard Grantham with: 18 From: m...@lycos.com Subject: Get yourself out of debt[snip] ----------------------- THE LONG CATEGORY It was a nice surprise to see my sole finalist start so well here. It was one of the shorter anagrams in this category and so I did not expect it to do well, up against Richard Grantham who had seven finalists here. Mey's challenge in the latter stages worried me for a while, but the last batch of votes did not favour either of us and I held on to win by three points. 1st. Larry Brash with: 25 And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you,[snip] 2nd. Meyran Kraus with: 22 Robert Bridges Winter Nightfall[snip] 3rd. David Bourke with: 21 Now, I don't want you to think I expect acknowledgements for all of my posts[snip] ----------------------- THE PEOPLES' NAMES CATEGORY The standard of anagrams in this category was phenomenal and there were some all-time classic name anagrams discovered by the group in 2000. Not surprisingly, this was close throughout, and for a while I led, but a powerhouse finish from two of Richard Grantham's gave him the first two places. Third and fourth places were so good and so close, they deserve a honourable mention as well. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 28 Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy = O, it's a lovely thick novel! 2nd. Richard Grantham with: 27 The Israeli general, Moshe Dayan = Hail, great hairless one-eyed man! 3rd. Larry Brash with: 23 Thomas Alva Edison= Aha! Ions made volts! 4th. David Bourke with: 22 Madonna Louise Ciccone. = One cool dance musician. 5th. Richard Grantham with: 21 William Shakespeare = I'll make a wise phrase. ----------------------- THE OTHER NAMES CATEGORY Yet another exciting finish. There were four hot chances here and all led at one time or another. Richard Brodie and Jaybur looked the best bets, but 8 points in the last 3 votes shot me pass them. This was the famous anagram that never got nominated by the group, so I nominated it myself. There's a lesson there. 1st. Larry Brash with: 25 Harley Davidson Motorcycles = Very costly old road machines. 2nd. Richard Brodie with: 23 The great pyramid of Cheops = My God! Perfect Pharaoh site! 3rd. Jaybur with: 22 Fire of London = Inferno of old. ----------------------- THE ANAGRAM SET CATEGORY This was the only category where there was no contest. Mey lead from start to finish with one of the best sets ever. It was a pity to have to limit it to the best five from an original set of eight. 1st. 12. Mey Kraus with: 48 The Biggest and Most Creative Painters of All Times = Da Vinci: Artist left proteges the best gem, 'Mona Lisa'. Van Gogh: Became mad; titles 'Self Portrait'- it is tense. Michelangelo: Artist's 'Pieta' met finest, bravest god. Matisse: Five Trotting Girls became the top 'La Danse'. Monet: Aged master's soft 'Lilies' brighten, captivate. 2nd. Brad Williams with: 31 Man walks into the bar I use, a trusty duck tethered. = The bartender wails, "Take this turkey and scum out!" The man wheedles, "Arr, but it's not a turkey, it's a duck!" The bartender says, "Um...true. I was talkin' to the duck." 3rd. Richard Grantham with: 27 And with a blend of these four indivisible elements - EARTH, both divine and life-fill'd, to imbue newnesses; AIR's blow, undefined, not visible, that enmeshed life; WATER, seem'd libation behind the fund of liveliness; Blessed FIRE of the divine, now bated, still inhumane - He made this oft-unbelievable world's infinite ends. ----------------------- THE SPECIAL CATEGORY How anyone could select from this list amazed me. In fact, it was soon overwhelming that only 21 voters made three selections here and six skipped the category all together. Richard Gratham started with a massive nine finalists and looked like none would get a place until the last vote pushed him into equal second in a thrilling finish. Special mentions for fourth and fifth places again. It is worth pointing out the Richard Grantham received a total of 81 points for his nine anagrams. 1st. Mike Keith with: 20 An essay of anagrams and antigrams [snip] eq 2nd. Richard Grantham with: 19 The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the Universityof Copenhagen:[snip] eq 2nd. David Bourke with: 19 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house[snip] 4th. Richard Brodie with: 18 A block anagram of Psalm 119 in 40 sections[snip] 5th. Richard Grantham with: 18 Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 [snip] ----------------------- THE BEST ANAGRAM SOFTWARE The perennial winner is William Tunstall-Pedoe's excellent software, Anagram Genius, but we have seen a recent rise in the use of Anagram checkers as an adjunct to using an anagram generator. I recently began using a checker myself and it makes the hard work of long anagrams substantially easier and faster. 1st. Anagram Genius by William Tunstall-Pedoe 29 2nd. Anagram Aide by Tom Myers 15 3rd. Wordplay by Evans A. Criswell 14 ----------------------- THE BEST ANAGRAM WEBSITE Again this year, the Anagrammy Website had serious competition, this time from Janet Muggeridge's Wordplay website, offering over 800 pages of all sorts of stuff about words. I have only read the anagram section so far and was impressed. I'll be back to read the rest. Janet led easily in the first half of this year's votes, but the Anagrammy caught up and passed her by only a modest margin. 1st. Anagrammy Awards by Larry Brash 42 2nd. Janet's Word Play by Janet Muggeridge. 39 3rd. Anagram Genius Archive by William Tunstall-Pedoe 15 ----------------------- THE BEST OVERALL ANAGRAM This was the first time that we asked for three (equal) choices for the Best of the Best. 12 anagrams achieved two points and three ended up with three points. As a result all three will receive a Grand Anagrammy Award. Of interest, two of these did not win a category above. Jaybur with: Male chauvinism. = I'm such a vile man. Larry Brash with: Thomas Alva Edison= Aha! Ions made volts! Jaybur with: Fire of London = Inferno of old. ----------------------- THE DANIEL F. ETTER MEMORIAL AWARD Dan Etter died suddenly in April 2000, leaving the group stunned by his loss. As a mark of respect to Dan and his anagramming talent, we decided to have a memorial award for the anagrammatist who accumulates the most corrected points during the year. As you know already, Richard Grantham was an easy winner of this inaugral award. Here are the scores for the top 10: 1st. Richard Grantham 882.30 2nd. Mey Kraus 639.84 3rd. David Bourke 484.13 4th. Tom Myers 480.67 5th. Jaybur 395.34 6th. Larry Brash 371.16 7th. Mick Tully 272.77 8th. Richard Brodie 212.53 9th. Jon Gearhart 179.32 10th. Janet Muggeridge 160.68 ----------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR THE MOST IMPROVED ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR This is a new award to acknowledge the member who has shown the most improvement during the last 12 months. There were two strong contenders for this in my mind, both fitting my criteria for this award: regular active involvement in alt.anagrams and a clear improvement in their performance in the Anagrammy Awards compared with the previous year. Jaybur has certainly impressed us all this year with her nine wins and three more in the Grand Anagrammies. David Bourke won five awards in 1999 and 13 in 2000, plus another one in Special here in the Grand Anagrammy. After much thought, I gave David Bourke this award on his greater number of wins and his ability across of whole gamut of anagramming styles and lengths. ----------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR THE MOST CONSISTENT ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR Another tough choice between two very regular contributers. My criteria were very regular and sustained involvement in alt.anagrams, with a good performance in the Anagrammies having wins in most months. I have often dubbed Tom Myers as "Mr. Consistency" and his 16 wins this year confirm this is not without good reason. He did have two quiet months when he was often helping with the US Elections. Mey Kraus has had to contend with being in the Army for part of this year (he is back studying now) and has still managed a massive 22 awards, missing awards in only one month. He then picked up two more in the Grand Anagrammy. Weighting it up, Mey gets the award. ----------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR THE ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR Well, what can I say? This man has taken alt.anagrams by storm in the last 15 months. Let's list some of his achievements this year. He has won every category at least once. No one else has done that including some of us who have been here from the start. He has won at least one award in every month of 2000. No one has won in every month before. He won seven awards in one month (August) and six in April and November. The previous record was five in a month. He has won more Long Spam and Long categories that anyone else. He has lifted the standard of performance of the group up several notches. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you..... Richard Grantham. ---------------------- Well, that is it for another year. My congratulations to all the winners and my condolences to those who just missed out, in particular Tom Myers, Richard Brodie and Janet Muggeridge, all of whom were well placed in two or more categories, but just missed out. The Anagrammies continue to grow in popularity with more voters visiting each month, and new members joining in the serious fun of anagramming. This competition could not run without the help of my good friend and able co-worker, Richard Grantham. He now has a greater involvement in running the Awards and, next year, when you vote for the best website, it will read: "The Anagrammy Website by Larry Brash and Richard Grantham." My thanks, too, to John Morahan who lurks in the background quietly checking the accuracy of the anagrams. I might add, on that point, that your anagrams hardly ever contain errors these days. Thanks to you all, especially the regular members who find such great anagrams. Your efforts are well-recognised in these awards. Thanks you, too, for your kind words and encouragement.