I Had Always Intended To Explain How I Bred Certain Of My Ants (Out of Print)

Once upon a time when I was a Certain Ant we released a cassette called 'I Had Always Intended To Explain How I Bred Certain Of My Ants'. All the titles were anagrams of Certain Ants such as 'At Ten Cairns' and 'Ran at Inset C'. So when we were looking at releasing the next recordings it was natural to want to title those pieces using anagrams of 'I Had Always Intended...etc etc" Well you would, wouldn't you?

Now the release of these recordings has been delayed. It has been delayed around 20 years so far. So way back when I was wondering what to do with the 75 plus 50 letter anagrams I'd generated using Scrabble tiles and a big tray. I decided a small pamphlet was called for and asked my fellow Ant Chris Atton to provide some illustrations. I gave him 20 some anagrams and he came back with drawings to accompany them.

We made 25 copies I think. Where are they now? Well I have 1 and a second one ornately hand-bound by my friend Jim who is now Associate Director for Digital Programs and Preservation at the Boston Athenaeum but at the time was just my mail-art buddy. Jim has one bound copy and I think he has another in some library collection of hand-bindings in Scotland(?). The Ants likely have one each somewhere but the rest were frittered away at gigs.

I found Chris's original drawings the other day and it struck me it might make a fun project, OK a useful filler, here at Banished's Bugs. So the plan is to post the illustrations and their accompanying anagrams over the next few weeks, months, whatever and whenever there is the space and time.

So to give you a taste here are 3 to start with.

I'd need a handy cabin for toil in Walt Eider's waxy potash mine.

What made Don Fix poison Len Nye with deadly arsenic rat-bait?

 A tiny rent-man hides a failed spherical body next to a window

More to follow. Even if you behave, I'm sorry