I had this idea that playing celebrity name anagrams isn’t (or needn’t be) that hard. The idea is that you don’t just scramble letters around to spell something else — the something else has to offer some sort of comment about the character or the personality of the celebrity in question.

And I was wrong — it’s very hard to come up with a good one. Or at least one as good as that amusing Oscar Wilde anagram that Dick Cavett assembled decades ago — “O, I Screw A Lad.”

Let me tell you — it’s hard to come up with an anagram that adds up to anything, much less one that reflects a personal habit or profession or character trait.

I couldn’t scramble my own name (Jeffrey Wells) into anything clever. “Jeffy Sweller” alludes to having a big ego, but isn’t much. While positive-minded, “Swell Jeffrey” is also barely an anagram. Then I came up with “Yes, We Fell” but couldn’t figure what to do with “jfr.”

Let’s try another name — Barack Obama. I can’t manage anything better than Mack A. Barbora…meaningless.

Name anagrams are a bitch. I’ll settle at this point for any anagram that amounts to anything at all. Roman Castevet = Steven Marcato….something in that vein.