I made up a revised contimental. I just added
Greece in what I think is a clever way...also Andora. I remember the first time I got caught with Andora, ...the scar hasn't heald yet. Also I'm not sure if the original one had London in it. If it did never mind. I'm not sure if this is allowed,but if anyone is interested I could email you a .gif file of my revised contimental. Just Greece, and Andora basically.
Let me know . Also let me know if this is allowed. I don't want to break any rules.
I e-mailed Mr. Maven a long time ago, and told him of the Andora addition...He said. "Nice".

e-leoni.

On a certain magic mailing list, I remember that one of the members once created a little computer program that you could type in a list of things and it would automatically create a branching anagram to use.

Unfortunately, I don't remember who it was and I no longer have the program.

However, I consider myself adept at creating these on my own. In fact, it can be a lot of fun.

It's not too hard once you follow a few basic rules, and of course the trick is to create a list that allow for no more than two 'nos'. But this is usually possible for most lists.

Tell ya what... if everyone's interested, we can put together a new list of European countries (that includes the ones that Max missed, and even the common non-European ones that people sometimes pick), and I'll go through the process for creating a branching anagram formula.

Then you'll be able to create your own formulas for your own lists...

Anyone game?

Yes that sounds great. Do you want us to send the names of some commonly named European countries ?

E-Leoni

Yes.

Let's put together the complete list of countries we're going to work with, including some of the commonly selected WRONG ones.

Anybody have the Contimental list handy? Please go ahead and post it. Then we'll need to add the 'missing' countries Andora, Cyprus, Greece, Sicily, Malta and Iceland. And just for fun, will throw in some commonly guess 'wrong' countries; Russia (and anything else that performers have occasionally gotten).

Albania Gibraltar Poland
Andorra Greece Portugal
Austria Greenland Romania
Belarus Hungary San Marino
Belgium Iceland Scotland
Bosnia Ireland Slovakia
Bulgaria Italy Slovenia
Croatia Latvia Spain
Cyprus Liechtenstein Sweden
Czech Republic Lithuania Switzerland
Denmark Luxembourg Ukraine
Estonia Macedonia United Kingdom
Europe Malta Vatican City
Faroe Islands Moldova Wales
Finland Monaco Yugoslavia
France Netherlands
Germany Norway Sicily
Russia?

BTW, using the Maven "I'll even throw in Scandinavia" highly offended my Norwegian niece-in-law, who quickly pointed out that Scandinavia is a region of Europe...and they are just as "European" as the others!

Missing from the above list are England and Northern Ireland. Someone might also conceivably come up with Britain or Great Britain. And many people call The Netherlands "Holland".

I've thought of using a folded-up, colorful map of Europe with the exact countries I want them to choose from on it. It can be laminated and carried in the wallet. Does anyone else think this is a good idea or not?

Does anyone have a line on the anagram making software yet??

Thanks.
-Marduke.

Back in 1998, Peter Lipp wrote a great progressive anagram builder program for Windows, and made it freely available. Just feed in the words you want, and it constructs a progressive anagram, using Maven's notation.

Don't know if he can still be reached at <plipp@iaik.tu-graz.ac.at>, but you can always try.

... Doug

Aren't there some pocket calendars (not to mention PDAs) that have maps in them?

Using this idea you could perhaps erase the "difficult" countries so to avoid them being chosen.

The drawback IMO, though, is that you get away from the clean propless approach of the whole premise.

/Matias

Okay, before I start the progressive anagram creation process, I want to make sure we have as complete a list as possible. So far, we have:

Albania
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia
Britain
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Europe
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Great Britain
Greece
Greenland
Holland
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Scandinavia
Scotland
Sicily
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vatican City
Wales
Yugoslavia

Have we missed any?

Also, as Nissemus pointed out, the Netherlands is also known as Holland. Are there alternate names for the countries listed that we should consider? For example, should we 'code' Northern Ireland as just 'North Ireland' or the Czech Republic as just 'Czech'?

Once we are all satisfied that the list is complete, I'll start the process...

It looks great to me.
How are you going to do this again...?
You have a program? I can't wait,This will be fantastic.

Thanks Philemon.

E-Leoni.

No, I don't have a program.

I'm going to do it the old-fashioned way; by hand (and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). And I'm going to explain the process step by step so that anyone who is interested can learn how to make their own for whatever list they decide to create.

However, now that I've said that, I realize this should probably go in either the "Secret Sessions" or "The triple dare!" areas. Would a staff member please kindly move it there?

Of course, that also means that you'll need to become a regular poster with at least 50 posts to access it...

Here is my 31st post. ......
..................................Dam.

Hopefully when I do get to the 50th post the post will still be there...? (Not a rhetorical question)


E-Leoni.

Sorry , I didn't mean to cuss.

Although technically "Dam" is not really a cuss word. I just looked it up.

dam1 dam,
noun an embankment to restrain water; the water so confined; a millstream (Scottish); a restraint (figurative).
verb transitive to keep back by a bank:

I retract my apology.


E-Leoni.

Every alternative they may say ought to be coded, including misspellings. (Or can't we read those minds?)

/Matias

Alternatives definitely should be coded.

As for misspellings, that's going to be trickier. Luckily the progressive anagram technique is pretty forgiving for most misspellings, such as single/double letter errors or dyslexic arrangements.

But if there's an obvious 'alternate' misspelling of a country, it should be figured in.

Two more to add to the list: Georgia and Turkey.

In Max's presentation, he avoids the Eastern European countries for reasons which make a lot of sense -- both to the audience and to the mentalist. He asks participants to stay away from them because "they keep changing and nobody can remember the names anyway" which includes, of course, people have a hard time spelling them.

In an ideal presentation, there'd be a choice of any country anywhere, but that, of course, gets impractical fast so ya gotta draw a line somewhere. I rather think that Max was right to stick to Western Europe.

Still, if you can get all those into a manageable presentation, that would be both a useful and impressive achievement!

I predict that you'll find -- when trying to include all these countries -- that there are too many letter collisions, and a regular progrssive anagram will not be possible.

In fact, I'd be surprised if you could construct one from even the first *half* of this list.

... Doug

Okay, it looks like we're ready to get started.

The first thing we need to do is take our list of 60 countries and break each name down to the pertinent letters; duplicated letters are eliminated and the remaining letters are arranged in alphabetical order (for ease of counting later).

Therefore, our list looks like this:

Albania ABILN
Andorra ADNOR
Austria AIRSTU
Belarus ABELRSU
Belgium BEGILMU
Bosnia ABINOS
Britain ABINRT
Bulgaria ABGILRU
Croatia ACIORT
Cyprus CPRSUY
Czech Republic BCDEHILPRUZ
Denmark ADEKMNR
England ADEGLN
Estonia AEIOPTU
Europe EOPRU
Faroe Islands ADEFILNORS
Finland ADFILN
France ACEFNR
Georgia AEGIOR
Germany AEGMNRY
Gibraltar ABGILRT
Great Britain ABEGINRT
Greece CEGR
Greenland ADEGLNR
Holland ADHLNO
Hungary AGHNRUY
Iceland ACDEILN
Ireland ADEILNR
Italy AILTY
Latvia AILTV
Liechtenstein CEHILNST
Lithuania AHILNTU
Luxembourg BEGLMORUX
Macedonia ACDEIMNO
Malta ALMT
Moldova ADLMOV
Monaco ACMNO
Netherlands ADEHLNRST
Northern Ireland ADEHILNORT
Norway ANORWY
Poland ADLNOP
Portugal AGLOPRTU
Romania AIMNOR
Russia AIRSU
San Marino AIMNORS
Scandinavia ACDINSV
Scotland ACDLNOST
Sicily CILSY
Slovakia AIKLOSV
Slovenia AEILNOSV
Spain AINPS
Sweden DENSW
Switzerland ADEILNRSTW
Turkey EKRTUY
Ukraine AEIKNRU
United Kingdom DEGIKMNOTU
Vatican City ACINTVY
Wales AELSW
Yugoslavia AGILOSUVY

Someone may want to check my work for errors, before we proceed any further...

:devilish: