Just As I Thought

Cords Loosing

Can’t stop myself. Here’s my anagram map of Metrorail, Washington’s subway. Wherever possible, I tried to tailor the anagrams to the specific place or a general Washington, DC sort of commentary. For example, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport becomes “Ghost Nonagenarian Drawl, Irrational to Nap.”

image



By popular demand, you can pick up a shirt with the station list at Cafepress.
(See also the Santa Clara VTA Map.)

19 comments

  • Excellent. I kept thinking I should do a DC one, but kept telling myself that someone else would get to it first and do it better. And here we are. Thumbs up.

  • Brilliant, Jon! I completely missed that one, and it fits the whole DC-based thing perfectly! I’m amending the map with your winner. smile

  • I had one in progress, and I’m simply amazed at the places where the anagrams we came up with are *identical*. “Relax, Diana.” “Ball Mounts.” “Robot Wink.” “Lick Lover.”

    I had the Beltway as “Wail, Batty Place,” which is accurate but not as good as your “Twice, Palatably.” And my Farragut West was “Frustrate Wag.”

    In any case, I bow in humility before the brilliance of your airport name. 😀

  • I, too, was working on my own — fearing that someone would finish first. And sure enough — you did! Brilliant!

    Others that I had on mine which I was fond of:

    Shaved Orgy
    A Licensed Term
    Perished Fish Night
    Erect Mentor
    Rogue Folk Clamped
    Ciao Satan
    Landscaper Firing Info
    Nation’s Shim
    Crafted Newsreel
    Holocaust Pit (!!)
    Androgen Bin
    Ann Colder (I know, it’s spelled wrong. But the pun is funny nonetheless)
    Drum Girlfriend Online.

    Great work!

    — S

  • Brilliant! As a DC ex-pat who had to deal with the construction of the system and commuted on it for many years, I must say your map beats the real thing.
    And, it was outed today in Gene Weingarten’s Tuesday chat on The Washington Post’s online edition. (search “anagram”)

  • Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post listed this link. The author is either seriously disturbed or brilliant or both! Congratulations!

  • Gene, your map got picked up in today’s Express (the Post’s free daily)!

    I tried to extract just the relevant page into a separate PDF, but I think the file is protected or some such, so here’s a link to the whole 12.7 MB issue. From the “Lookout Weekend” insert, p. E2 (or p. 46 of the PDF):

    Anagramatic Moat Perms
    All the cool kids are remaking subway maps with anagrams of station names. The friendly genecowan.com has made sure Washington doesn’t get left out, and a thorough cartographer (or should we say, “ear garth crop”) he is. Even the non-Metro liens–er, lines–are anagramed, including the Anacostia (Aviator Arsenic) and Potomac (Apricot Mover) rivers. The DCist, jealous that genecowan got to WMATA first, proceeded to make a D.C. Metro map using London station names. Whatever–that’s Retro Cement coming off, and you need to switch to the Reign Alone. Just leave your PressEx on the seat for the next person.

  • Hmm… I don’t know if such notoriety is good or bad… any day now, I feel certain that Metro will be serving cease and desist letters…

  • Heh! Well, I first did a map for the San Jose light rail system, but no one much seems to care. Not surprising, as I’ve never seen more than 5 or 6 people on a train at a time here.

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