Many of my friends (and otherwise) regard me as a purveyor of bad puns. (Guilty.) But were I to live ten lifetimes,  I would never come up with as many puns, bad or not, as has Piers Anthony, creator of Xanth, which is shaped like Florida but partakes of Earth and many other realities.

I first became aware of this gentleman via The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the early 70s, which published his short story “Wood You?” My arrogant teenage self thought the story, about an improbable wood-splitting contest, was stupid, with overflogging of certain joke-concepts and an array of putrid puns.

What I missed was that it was also magnificent, arresting storytelling. After well over 45 years it is the ONLY story in that issue of F&SF that I remember–with the possible exception of Avram Davidson’s “Selectra Six-Ten,” which may have been in that issue as well.

I won’t transcribe the acrostic poem I wrote on this page. It is an array of stupid puns with zero magnificent storytelling. But it, and this post, serve as a memorandom (pun intended) to myself to later do the same decent job on Anthony that I did on Theodore Sturgeon about five years back, including a well-rendered portrait.

Trivia: Mr. Anthony has punned every month of the year. I say Inktober, he says Octogre. Let’s call the whole thing Fun. Rhymes with Pun. What Piers Anthony has taught me is that a play on words can help a person be Playful.