MAKING ARRANGEMENTS

Randolph Ross, of New York City, is a retired high school principal and math teacher. He is one of the longest-running active crossword contributors to The Times, having had well over 100 puzzles published during the past 30 years.

He writes, "Staying in my apartment so much these days has increased my crossword solving and constructing. I feel fortunate I have an avocation that keeps my brain engaged."

I've been collecting anagrams since I was a little kid. When I taught math, I loved and was amazed that TWELVE PLUS ONE anagrammed into ELEVEN PLUS TWO. When I came across FORTY-FIVE anagramming into OVER FIFTY, I started looking for other math anagram pairs. I couldn't find or create any other math ones, but in my research and imagination, I came up with a set of not so well-known related pairs that I could fit into a sentence or two and could serve as a Sunday theme. My favorites in this puzzle are CONTAMINATED changing into NO ADMITTANCE, and A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM changing into WHAT AM I A MIND READER.

I loved talking to the late and missed Merl Reagle, who was my crossword constructing role model and an anagrammer extraordinaire. His fun with anagrams was infectious. When anyone met Merl for the first time, he would make up an anagram of your name. I was RANDY ROSS = SOS! RAN DRY!

I've done a few Anagram themed puzzles. "Travel Arrangements" (ALGERIA REGALIA, LIBYA BIALY, et al.) and "Name Change" (NUDIST HOFFMAN, WARDEN WYETH) "Rearranging the Furniture" (CHEST OF DRAWERS = CHEST OF REWARDS, OFFICE DESK = OFFICE KEDS et al.) I have found anagrams are a favorite among word puzzlers. So when I find a new one that's particularly apt, it makes me happy and goes in my collection.

I hope the solve went well for everyone. The crossing words were particularly important to figuring out the long theme entries. I also hope there were a lot of "aha" moments when the five pairs of anagrams were deduced.

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM -> WHAT AM I, A MIND READER would make anagramatron proud. It was on "This American Life" and other sources as well, but it's still an A+ discovery.

Crosswords have tapped anagrams for decades now, and they're often not my thing because they've been so played out. It's also tough to anagram more than seven letters in my head, so connecting CONTAMINATED to NO ADMITTANCE is more "I'll take your word for that" rather than "oh man that's so cool."

Interesting way to link the anagrams, though. I've never before seen CONTAMINATED leading to NO ADMITTANCE, sort of a cause/effect presentation. I appreciate the novelty. I thought we were in for another "word that means an anagram of itself" when I hit SYCOPHANT / ACTS PHONY, so it was a pleasant surprise to get something different.

FORTY-FIVE leading to OVER FIFTY at first felt arbitrary, but in the vein of cause/effect, this worked.

Best of all, I was delighted that Randy didn't dip into sub-140 word territory like he usually does. Although the result didn't exemplify smoothness — that SE corner of TEASELS SUD SNEE left me with some AGITA — it's an average Sunday result. Nothing to excessively kvetch about.

It's uncommon for me to enjoy an anagram puzzle, so kudos for the new twist. I'd even venture to say that if all pairs had demonstrated such neat cause/effect links as CONTAMINATED to NO ADMITTANCE, it'd have gotten a whiff of POW! consideration.