My posts here are usually ‘first drafts’, written on the spur of the moment, like spontaneous prose as promoted by Jack Kerouac from the 1940s and later; or inspired by previous thoughts offline. If I was writing articles or academic papers I’d edit them.
So for more clarity I’ve returned to a couple of recent posts. I do that for three reasons:
- It interests me and I want to examine it further.
- It could finally prove my genius!
- It shows I can still do academic quality research and writing.
Perfection Examined and Explained
Recently, I called this anagram box a perfect 3×3:
TEA
EAT
ATE
It is pefect in that the three words work horizontally and vertically, 3×3 two ways. So the 3×3 refers to the number of words and letters, rather than it working three ways.
There is also of course an extra EAT working backwards from position 9 to 1*, leading back to the start where it starts an EAT-TEA (acronymically and homophonically ET as in extra-terrestrial) horizontally (1 to 3*) and vertically (1 to 7*).
*Numbers 1-9 referred to above work:
123
456
789
So maybe 3x3x2+1 would be a more complete and accurate equation. 3×3 words and letters x 2 ways working (vertically and horizontally) and 1 working backwards diagonally.
Room for Improvement?
However, complete/contrary perfectionists may argue that to be perfect it should also work backwards and diagonally. While it couldn’t spell the same TEA-EAT-ATE words working backwards, it could conceivably spell different real words.
mistYmuse 