Joshua Kosman, a classical-music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, is a typical attendee. “The past fifteen years, for me, has been a process of sinking into, codifying, and coming to terms with the fact that this is what I do. That I’m a puzzle guy,” he told me. Then he cut to the chase: “Did you know that Britney Spears has signed a big endorsement deal with Pepsi? That’s right, it’s true, and we are all very happy about it. You see, ‘Pepsi-Cola’ is an anagram of ‘Episcopal’ and ‘Britney Spears’ is an anagram of ‘Presbyterians.’ ” He paused to let this sink in, but my reaction wasn’t quite what he had hoped for. “Yeah, I know,” he said. ” ‘Episcopal’ is singular, and ‘Presbyterians’ is plural. But we take what we can get.”