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A.Word.A.Day--pangram pangram (PAN-gram, -gruhm, PANG-) noun A sentence that makes use of all the letters of the alphabet. [From Greek pan- (all) + -gram (something written).] Many typists know "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog" as a thirty-three-letter sentence that employs every letter in the alphabet at least once. Now fix your eyes on a sampling of the best pangrams of even fewer letters. What you are about to see are meaningful sentences that avoid obscure words yet contain every letter of the alphabet: Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. (thirty-two letters) Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. (thirty-one) How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. (thirty) Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim. (twenty-nine) Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud. (twenty-eight) Bawds jog, flick quartz, vex nymph. (twenty-seven) And now, wordaholics, logolepts, lexicomanes, and verbivores -- the Peter Pangram of all pangrams -- Mr. Jock, TV quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx. (twenty-six!) If you can come up with a twenty-six letter pangram that makes easy sense and does not resort to names, initials, or mutant words, please rush it to me at richard.lederer@pobox.com. This week's theme: words about wordplay by guest wordsmith Richard Lederer. X-Bonus Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

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