11 Apropos Anagrams Made From State Mottos
Published Friday, July 23, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM

You know you're a nerd when you decide to devote almost a full day of your life to making anagrams.

For this 11 Points, I went through the lists of U.S. state mottos and slogans and rearranged the letters to form new, and often more appropriate, mottos and slogans for the states.

These are my 11 favorite results. Set your phasers to fun...
  1. Arkansas
    Original motto/slogan: Regnat Populus: The People Rule
    Anagram motto/slogan: Eeep! Pull Up! Gun Store Plethora!

    My original goal was to somehow wrangle "Wal-Mart" out of one of their mottos or slogans but there's not a single "w" in the lot. Still, I felt that the gun store angle was more than appropriate -- especially with Wal-Mart's staunch pro-gun policy.



  2. New Jersey
    Original motto/slogan: Liberty and Prosperity
    Anagram motto/slogan: Italy Stripper? Bro, Deny.

    As in: Your sister Rosangela is working at Johnny Tightlips' club? Bro, don't tell the boys dat.

  3. Arizona
    Original motto/slogan: The Grand Canyon State
    Anagram motto/slogan: A Changed Tyrant Onset

    I needed something to capture the Big Brother movement in Arizona, and this one felt most poetic. Other options included "Tenant Changers Today", "Tenant: A Changed Story" and "Tenant Charged. Stay? No."


    A double whammy of one sign misspelled and one making a sex joke in an immigration rally. Fantastic stuff there.

  4. California
    Original motto/slogan: Find Yourself Here
    Anagram motto/slogan: Hey, Funds Or Relief!

    Trust me, that sums up the state now. Although, if it hadn't included so many misspellings, I could've gone with "Hey, Reefr Fund Is Lo."

  5. Ohio
    Original motto/slogan: With God, all things are possible.
    Anagram motto/slogan: While LeBron gags... hi, sadist plot!

    Sums up the ulterior motive behind LeBron's 2010 playoff choke-job nicely, I think.



  6. Indiana
    Original motto/slogan: The Crossroads of America
    Anagram motto/slogan: Hoosier Scorecard: Mas Fat

    Indiana has an obesity rate of 29.9 percent, well within the second quartile of the country. (And, yes, I could really make an obesity reference to any state and be justified -- what with America's love of delicious food and all -- but anagramming "hoosier" here was just too tempting to pass up.)

    (Side note: I'm writing this list while in my hotel room at Comic-Con while a guy dressed as Balky from "Perfect Strangers" just walked by, and yet that previous sentence was possibly the nerdiest thing said or written in San Diego this entire weekend.) (Side, side note: It might've been Bronson Pinchot himself.)

  7. South Carolina
    Original motto/slogan: While I breathe, I hope. Ready in soul and resource.
    Anagram motto/slogan: Rah, Rebel. Wait... Hide... Hide... Silence. Our Year, Up Soon.

    Frankly, I'm not convinced the state motto isn't a coded message to the people to keep biding their time until the Northerners become less aggressive. My anagram is only a slightly more blatant way of saying it.

  8. Washington
    Original motto/slogan: Experience Washington
    Anagram motto/slogan: Rain Eschewing Net Expo

    It could've become the tech mecca of the country if it wasn't for the weather. (And another anagram for when you're driving through the state and wondering whether to stay for the day or press on to Oregon or Idaho: "Change? None. Wipers. Exit.")

  9. Michigan
    Original motto/slogan: Say Yes to Michigan!
    Anagram motto/slogan: Coney a hit! (I'm gassy.)

    But those coneys really are delicious.


    The delicacy of Michigan. (And don't write me angrily, Traverse City Cherry Lobby. I know about you. You can't put chili on cherries.)

  10. Nevada
    Original motto/slogan: All For Our Country
    Anagram motto/slogan: Your Roll, For a C*nt

    Play craps and possibly earn enough money to have sex. That's pure Nevada. (As for my self-imposed censorship there, oh, I don't know. I want to make sure that my site is still allowed by YOUR corporate firewall. And I have a feeling that dropping a bunch of c-u-next-Tuesdays is a path to ban-ville.) (Not to be confused with Bingville. I had a dream we beat them 14-3.)

  11. Wisconsin
    Original motto/slogan: America's Dairyland
    Anagram motto/slogan: Aim: Lardy Radiances

    And anyone who has visited the Cheese Chalet knows that Wisconsin has truly achieved that aim.

    This just beat out my transformation of Massachusetts' "The Spirit of America" into "Craftiest Hipie Roam", Utah's "Industry" into "Sin'r Duty", and Idaho's "Esto perpetua" into "O, Tater Peeps! U?"
This list was published on Friday, July 23, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM under the category Travel.
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