Every Letter, Everywhere, All at Once

    In last week's monumental 500th post, I mentioned that I would be discussing its unusual title. Namely, "Quixotic Topics Involving Sheer Luck and Jazziness towards Blogcast Infamy." In case you didn't notice, that unwieldy title is a pangram, a work that features every letter of the alphabet at least once. While it can refer to any work, it is primarily focused on sentences, as much longer works are just naturally pangrams. Coming up with that title took a while, as finding just the right words was tough. I narrowed down on quixotic, blogcast, and infamy immediately. Involving and topics were next. Jazziness, while atypical, came next. Finally, I chose towards over wit, so I could get sheer and luck to finish up the alphabet. 

    As pangrams go, my title isn't too outrageous.  I have seen some that were questionable with many of their decisions.  In fact, many of my posts are pangrams as well. This is mostly not intentional, as I just naturally want to use as many letters as I can. It is a bad habit I have picked up over the years. I have even done such things in assignments. The papers are just long enough that it appears normally and not an affectation. I find it comforting and not crazy at all.

    My favorite pangram sentence is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." I believe that this was originally a typewriting assessment but I can't be entirely sure. It's only thirty-five letters long, with some obvious repeats, but it shows all the qualities that the best pangrams have. First, it uses common words. the average first grader would know all of these words. Some pangrams resort to the most obscure words possible to use up the letters as possible. I remember seeing a pangram using the words sphinx and quartz. While such words keep the repeats down, it can lead to unusual phrasing.

    Second, actual words are used. I've seen pangrams that resort to abbreviations and acronyms to keep the word count low. While technically correct, the wordplay aspects are tossed out. Sure, use TV and Mr. so you can avoid repeats.  Just don't call it a true pangram.

    Finally, the sentence makes complete sense. One type of canid performs an action around a second canid. Most people would know immediately what was going on. Many shorter pangrams resort to using such unusual words and phrasing, that the sentence has to be "translated" for the reader to understand what exactly is going on. To me, this constitutes an epic fail. If a read can't understand, then the creator tried too hard focussing on the result as opposed to the wordplay.

    I feel that it is the wordplay that is the key to the pangram. Just using the entire alphabet without repeats in a sentence is not enough. A pangram needs to be fun, not just a puzzle to be looked over or solved. A pangram should leave the reader experiencing an acknowledgment that they just read something special, something not seen everyday. A pangram shouldn't have to head someone over the head with its uniqueness, its strangeness. Words should be fun, and pangrams should be an extension of that fun, in its wordplay.

    The next two weeks of posts will be fairly short, due to the holidays and work I have coming up, but they will still be written on time. See you then.