by Peggy Robin
Gotta love this holiday!
It’s 8.18.18, which reads the same forwards and backwards,
making it a palindrome, and making today Palindrome Day. Or at least, Limited
Palindrome Day. A full Palindrome Day would use the four-digit year. The next four-digit palindrome
day will occur more than a year from now, on September 10, 2019 (9.10.2019). [For more on palindrome dates, see: https://faculty.up.edu/ainan/palindromedates21stcentury2011.pdf]
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| Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog and Other Palindromes |
Or perhaps revolt against it?
"Revolt, love!" raved Eva. "Revolt,
lover!"
(Eva, like Ida, is one of those characters who frequently declaims in palindromic mode – but not as often as Eve, or Anna, or Bob, or Hannah, or Otto, or Nan, or those perpetually paired sisters, Enid and Nadine.
(Eva, like Ida, is one of those characters who frequently declaims in palindromic mode – but not as often as Eve, or Anna, or Bob, or Hannah, or Otto, or Nan, or those perpetually paired sisters, Enid and Nadine.
For Palindrome Day, you can refresh your memory of the most
famous palindromes ever composed:
Napoleon’s lament:
“Able was I ere I saw Elba.”
“Able was I ere I saw Elba.”
The one about the canal:
“A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!”
“A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!”
From the first man to the first woman:
“Madam, I’m Adam.” (Or the slightly longer version: “Madam in Eden, I’m Adam.”)
“Madam, I’m Adam.” (Or the slightly longer version: “Madam in Eden, I’m Adam.”)
There’s my favorite theological/ornithological question:
“Do Geese See God?”
“Do Geese See God?”
And my all-time favorite, a greeting, though it has no
obvious application:
“YO! Banana Boy!”
“YO! Banana Boy!”
Want more? The palindromist Fred Derf (real name Neil
Picciato) has come up with this 460-item list:
If you would like to celebrate this day by gathering with
fellow lovers of front-to-back-to-front-again wordplay, there’s a party you can
attend, this very afternoon. It’s the Chevy Chase Library’s Palindrome Day Party
at 2 PM. And it’s free. All ages welcome. (Children 8 and under must be accompanied by an adult.) The Chevy Chase
Library is at 5625 Connecticut Ave. NW. More info: https://www.dclibrary.org/node/59782
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local (La Col Sie Fill La) on Saturdays.
For more on palindromes see generally The New Ambidextrous Universe by Martin Gardiner and Godel, Escher, and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.
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