Saturday, June the 10th, 2006
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We will not be blathering on about the World Cup to the point of tedium here at Hooting Yard (or perhaps we will) but it seems an opportune moment to direct your attention to a favourite parlour game.
Whisk yourself back to Sweden in January 1938. It is a freezing cold night, starless and swept by gales. In a little cottage, there is a light in the window. You trudge towards it in your snow-shoes, fighting against the bitter wind. Peering in, you see a warm and happy scene. Mr and Mrs Grip are swaddling their newborn son, a little pink Scandinavian bundle. You watch as an elderly crone enters the room, carrying a basin of piping hot water. She places the basin by the roaring fireplace, and then you hear her ask “What are you going to call this little gift of heaven?” And Mr and Mrs Grip speak in unison, proudly, “We shall call him Tord!”
Little did the parents or the grandmother know that the tiny tot cradled so lovingly would grow up to become what the official Football Association website calls “an invalubale part of the Team England setup” [sic]. Sven Goran Eriksson's loyal assistant is ‘invalubale’ not just for his astute and brainy approach to the game, but because his name gives rise to some exciting anagrams, among them Prog Dirt, Port Grid, Drip Grot, Prod Grit, and RR Dot Pig, among others.
How many more can you come up with? Although we are unable to provide free tickets for any World Cup matches to the winning entry, the reader whose Tord Grip anagram list is most entertaining will be given a spare chair at the next fixture involving the Blister Lane Academicals.