## are the words "Eternal Golden Braid" an anagram or something?

* Author: u/perverse_milkman_art *
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2zb49g/are_the_words_eternal_golden_braid_an_anagram_or/
* Score: 4

* Created: 2015-03-17T02:41:06

### Post:

I see you folks are reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. The book is filled with so many puzzles and self-referential jokes; I remember wondering when I read it years ago why he used that peculiar, specific phrase "an Eternal Golden Braid". Does that have some hidden meaning? An anagram or an encrypted message? I couldn't figure it out.

### Comments:

> **u/None** [+8]  (9 minutes later)
> 
> Well, it also has the initial letters G, E, and B, albeit in different order.

>> **u/perverse_milkman_art** [+2]  (2 hours later)
>> 
>> Yeah, that's part of what makes it suspicious. Makes it's an anagram in another language?

>>> **u/None** [+7]  (3 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Douglas Hofstafdter is fluent in French and spent some time translating his book himself. Mr. Tortoise becomes Madame Tortue to better fit the gender of the noun in that language.

>>>> **u/makemeunsee** [+4]  *Mock turtle* (10 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> do you have any more info / reference on that translation bit? He's not listed among the official translators of the French edition.
>>>> 
>>>> edit: also there's no evident anagram to "eternal golden braid" or its parts in French

> **u/None** [+6]  (24 minutes later)
> 
> Abandoned Tree Grill
> 
> Long Readable Tinder
> 
> Adorable Gender Lint
> 
> Alterable Dinner God
> 
> Algebra Lined Rodent
> 
> Trainable Ogled Nerd
> 
> Rational Bred Legend
> 
> ...I've got nothing.

> **u/Newfur** [+3]  *Crazy like a fox. Literally.* (12 minutes later)
> 
> No, just an anag-ac-strapolation.

> **u/alexanderwales** [+9]  *Time flies like an arrow* (22 minutes later)
> 
> I mean, it's an anagram [for a lot of things](http://wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=eternal+golden+braid&t=1000&a=n). But I don't think that it's an anagram for anything specific. (Douglas Hofstadter took over a column called "Mathematical Games" from Martin Gardner and renamed it as "Metamagical Themas", so he is a fan of anagrams.)

> **u/chaosmosis** [+1]  *and with strange aeons, even death may die* (22 hours later)
> 
> Brain, rational, learn, agent. Not getting any good overall results, although these words stuck out to me. Probably coincidence, but on the other hand he is clever.

> **u/None** [+1]  (2 days later)
> 
> Eternal - Escher
> 
> Golden - Godel
> 
> Braid - Bach

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