Date: Wed, 26 MAR 1997 16:50:45 -0800
From: Martin Putnam
Subject: Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz.
To: peter@ant.co.uk

Dear Peter Hartley,

I write in defense of the pangram (or "holoalphabetic sentence")
on the subject line.

You say,

> Cwm fjord bank glyphs vex't quiz.
> A cwm (Welsh word) is a geological term for something that may
> well be found on the bank of a fjord; "vex't" for vexed is
> definitely cheating though.
http://www.ant.co.uk/~peter/string/alphabet.htm

I'm not sure that it _is_ cheating, nor am I sure that "vex't"
needs an apostrophe.  Consider

     And that same night, the night of the new year,
     By reason of the bitterness and grief
     That vext his mother, all before his time
     Was Arthur born. . .
        (Tennyson, _Idylls of the King_, "The Coming of Arthur")

Is this not English?  This very poem is, after all, one of the
authorities relied upon by the editors of the Oxford English
Dictionary to establish standard usage (see OED Index), although
they don't happen to quote the above-cited passage in the
articles on "vex" and "vexed." See those articles for various
uses of "vext" and "vex't," however. Tennyson again:

    Glad that no phantom vext me more, return'd
    To whence I came, the gate of Arthur's wars.
        (_Idylls of the King_, "Holy Grail" [also in OED index])

I am sure that you will agree, on sober reflection, that "Cwm
fjord bank glyphs vext quiz" is a pangram above reproach.

Martin Putnam