Solving and Composing the Rebus and Rebade Of all Enigma
puzzles, the rebus and anagram offer the most play to the
composer’s imagination. By the same token, they are the two
types most subject to abuse. I’ll discuss some things you may
encounter in rebi. (I use rebi, a traditional NPL joke plural,
throughout this article. The joke plural of suber - a rebus in
reverse - is iber.) Some information may not be completely clear
until you’ve been solving for a few months; none will be clear
until you have read the rebus and rebade sections in types of
flats. Don’t assume I’m endorsing every rebic practice described
here! In most of the following examples, for clarity, the
rubric’s reading is given in parentheses after the answer, with
implied words supplied in brackets where needed. The simplest
sort of rebus refers solely to the letters and other symbols in
the rubric and to their positions. Examples are THALE = in the
altogether (in THE, AL together), CI C = catatonic (suber: CI
not at a C), and WY = right of wa