Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Mensa Hunt 2008—Hair Complications

Many riddles which are related to wordplays frequently have something to do with anagrams. There are of course many other themes in cryptic clueing, but I dare say that the anagrams are one of the most popular.

Anagrams are basically the process of rearranging letters found in a word (s) to form a new word (s). In cryptic clueing, anagram operations are usually hinted with the help of words commonly known as the indicators. There are many, many words that can qualify as the anagram indicators, but that doesn’t mean that one can use just any word!

Let’s now try to understand what are the common requirements for words to qualify as the anagram indicators.

(i) SOMETHING NOT QUITE RIGHT or SUSPICIOUS

As if indicating that the original word has been modified:

PERHAPS, MAYBE, STRANGE (LY), POSSIBLE etc.

(ii) CHANGED or SUBJECT TO CHANGE

These words signal that the original word (s) has been changed or subject to be changed:

ALTER (ED), AMEND, TRANSFORM, MOULD, CREATE, PRODUCE, DOCTOR etc.

(iii) DISTURBANCE

More action words that signal the modification and/or disturbance to the original form or shape of the words:

DESTROYED, MANGLED, SHAKEN, STIRRED, BROKEN etc.


I was told that there was at least one CoC in the Malaysian hunting scene who had the habit of using the question mark (?) as the anagram indicator in his clues. But apparently that idea was not well-received and has since been abandoned after the said CoC went into retirement.

It is interesting to note that, perhaps because the anagrams are the easiest style to use, many CoCs (especially the new ones) have the tendency to “overuse” the anagrams in their clues. Likewise, many new hunters are also apt to search for the anagrams in every single clue. In fact, many hunters love the anagrams so much that they will try to squeeze anagrams out of clues even when it’s obvious that those clues have nothing to do with anagrams!

Q9) CURBING HAIR SPURT HERE.

A strange-looking clue from the Mensa Hunt 2008. I’m still trying to imagine the process of “HAIR SPURT” up to now. But the experienced hunters will tell you that whenever you see a clue with dubious surface reading like the above, you can more or less guess that the sentence is set like that because the setter’s hands are tied—he has no choice but to use the same letters found in the original word (s). And you can quite safely assume that some sort of anagram is involved in the riddle.

For example, when you see something like, “TOY TAG TIED WRONGLY…” you can more or less assume that you need to anagram “TOY TAG TIED” to form a new word (s). In fact, you can go one step further—that this is a direct anagram because if it’s an indirect anagram, perhaps the words can be better blended to form a “smoother” sentence.

Coming back to the “HAIR SPURT” above, the “HERE” refers of course to what’s found on the signboard. Therefore, IF this is an anagram riddle, the word “CURBING”, which is the only word left in the clue, must be the anagram indicator. And so, scanning the available signboards within that sector, one is bound to come to: SHARITPUR.

A9) SHARITPUR MINI MARKET SDN. BHD.

If you have made up your mind on the possible anagram in the this question, I don’t think that it’s very difficult to spot “HAIR SPURT” in “SHARITPUR”.

But the question we must ask ourselves is whether “CURBING” can qualify as an anagram indicator? In order to answer this question, we must first investigate what’s the exact meaning of that word. As a verb, the word can mean “to control or put a limit on” something. It doesn’t really change the form or shape of that something. Neither does it indicate that the original word (s) is subject to modifications. It doesn’t mean that just any action word can qualify as an anagram indicator. I therefore am not in favour of using “CURBING” as an anagram indicator.

But now we come back to reality. In life, sometimes we just can’t get everything perfectly as we would like them to be. As I said earlier, one can quite easily spot “HAIR SPURT” in “SHARITPUR”, and it is also reasonable to assume an anagram operation. “CURBING” as I said is at least a debatable anagram indicator, but then sometimes we will find ourselves answering the CoC, and not the question!

Just one sentence from my team mate, and I was immediately convinced that we have arrived at the correct solution (in spite of the fact that the CoC revealed, later on, that he had a decoy for this question).

My team mate (he has hunted in the past Mensa hunts) said: “This CoC is not very particular about his anagram indicators”, or something to that effect. And so all of us settled for the “SHARITPUR” and moved on to the next question.

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