Short Stuff: Palindromes

Published Apr 14, 2021, 9:00 AM

Chuck loves palindromes. So much that his very name is one. Oh wait...

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Hello, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. And I said hello with a silent h at the end, which means I just said something in palindrome. I love palindromes, as it turns out, Yeah, I do too, and I think it's fat. The one that gets me is when somebody's like, this number is a palindrome. I just wrote it out. I don't get that, like that doesn't count. Maybe if it's a date or something that you don't have any control over, then yeah, be a palindrome. But just anybody who's into numbers that are palindromes, be quiet, Be quiet, once and for all. Yeah, I'm glad you said that, because this article, even from how stuff works dot com, says some numbers are palindromes, like one eight zero zero eight one right, like that, I just wrote out any number exactly. That's how we're talking about. We're not going to give another breath to that stupidness. Instead, we're gonna talk about real palindromes, which is a word, a phrase, a poem. Even as we'll see um that can be said the same forwards or backwards. And apparently it comes from a little bit of Greek who like the palindromes. Yes, the word palin means back or again, and dromos means running or moving, so it's a word or phrase that's running back on itself. And I'm even gonna go so far for me as to say I only like palindromes that are literal, the letters backwards and forwards, like they make the case in here, like some phrases like night after night. I'm like, now, well, we'll talk about that in a second. Okay, okay, I prefer that as well. I like the I like the the letters back and forth, and that's that. But I will say my eyes were open to that by this article. Fair enough, So the first palindrome, like I said, the Greeks liked it. Actually, it turns out the Romans did. But the Romans model a lot of their society, if not all of it, on the ancient Greeks, so it's possible they ripped them off, and that the Romans just happened to be the first ones to mention it. But the first palindrome comes from seventy c. E Um and it's in Latin. Chuck, do you want to take a crack at it? Storrepo tenant opera rotas, you just turned me into a tree. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what it's saying in Latin, like we Americans say all Latin, like we're in a Harry Potter movie. Yeah, like Evil Dead Klatto verata, that's a Day to the Earth. It's still, Yes, it is. It's the Evil Dead, my friend. Then they stole it from the Day of the Earth, said still, because that is the I don't even remember what it was. Yeah, that's from the Day of the Earth's still, I promise. Well, then they ganked it in Evil Dead, which is better. I think it was more in homage probably, Okay, but to hear it come out of Bruce Campbell's mouth, is that's the money shot. I mean, they really went off the rails on those movies. Yeah, they're making another one, I think when I don't know, like a Bruce Campbell one, like a sequel to Army of Dark's Boy, that's going to be great. You can't wait. Okay, So what did that um? That palindrome you said mean it means the sower Rabo holds the wheel with effort, or the sower Arabo leads with his hands with his hand the plow. Nothing that matters at all to any of us alive today. But I'm sure back in the day the Romans were like that is everyone really spoke to me, you know what I mean. But it goes to show that, like word play has been around for almost as long as words. You know, yeah and chuck, um, it wasn't just the ancient Romans who were into it, that that love of it has survived. And I say we pick up with the modern day after taking a short break. What do you think let's do it? Okay, all right, we're back by modern day of course, I mean the sixteen thirties. Yeah. The first mention of palindromes in English is in Camden's Remains by John philipot from six. Palindrums are those where the syllables are same backward and forward. So all blatta at alba see new me in mounis very nice, which means secluded but pure. Give me my fee and I warrant you free, okay, which is great that you have a palindrome that also rhymes, because that's not necessarily part and parcel with it. Um. Philip HoTT was just showing off. But you'll note that he's an English speaker and he wrote an English speaking book, Camden's Remains, but it was still in Latin, hence the whole clattoo verada tone to Chuck's reading of it. It's not until seventeen o six that we find the first written English palindrome in an English dictionary called the New World of Words or Universal English Dictionary. And this is as follows, lewd did I live? And evil did I dwell? Yeah, there's there's a couple of problems with it. One, they had to drop off the second l and dwell to make it the reverse of lud. And then there's also the whole and in the middle of it, which does not part of a palindrome. It's not a palindrome itself, and it kind of screws up the whole palindrome. But because it was the beginning of the eighteenth century, everybody kind of chose to overlook the and part. That's right. Uh, then we can skip the part about numbers being palindromes because that's just rage inducing. Well, no, the date makes sense, so one is a palindrome. January was a palindrome day fourth mentioning you know, we'll take that, but give me your eye opening with the thing like night after night, which just sort of makes me mad too. So there's a there's a really neat poem that I hadn't heard of until um I ran across it in this article by James A. Linden called Doppelganger, and it is itself a palindrome like where you can actually um read it from. You could go to the very end and read it, or you can go to the beginning to read it, and it's going to be the same. So you don't read the actual words, but like the word itself backwards, but you read the order of the words backwards and forwards, and the whole thing hinges on. Um the phrase night after night, which is pretty a pretty awesome poem to tell you the truth. Let me just read you the middle part where it hinges, and I think you'll be properly blown away. Okay. I puzzled over it, hiding alone, watching the woman as she neared the gate. He came and I saw him crouching, night after night. Night after night he came, and I saw him crouching, watching the woman as she neared the gate. I puzzled over it, hiding alone, and it's just like the poem starts out and then it gets to night after night and then goes back. It's like it's swings on a hinge. It's really neat. I like it. I like it too. It's not one of your perfect, proper palin drums or anything, but it's still pretty cool. So here's my thing is, I started kind of diving into this online and found out that there a is a documentary called The Palindromists, which I didn't watch, but I did watch the trailer, which was fun enough and kind of gave me enough inside in two minutes. That sounds like a crew that Hodgeman would hang out with, probably so um. But it covered in part the Palindrome Championships, which is basically where they get palindrome enthusiast together at a hotel ballroom and they say, you've got nine. They have three constraints. They didn't mention the constraints in the trailer. Uh, you have ninety minutes to write out original palindromes and then the audience alive audience votes and weird Owl is in it. He's a palindromist. Um. Uh. Danika mckeller Winnie from one of years is one. You know she wrote like a science or no, a math book. Well do you know what? She also wrote? What tons of UFO snot? What is that? It's a palindrome? Oh that's a good one. Okay, weird al wrote this one Suzy rat in a sanitary zoo. That's so Dana wins so far. My deal with these is once I started kind of seeing this community is not only do I love a palindrome, but I like an original one that someone can invent that kind of makes sense and it's not just a collection of words like do geese? See god? Yeah, that makes sense? It does. Uh. Here was another one from the documentary Gerda Boston's i Q is not so bad? Reg h, that's a good one. Wow, who'ss that? Just a contestant? No one famous Lloyd Benson. Sure, okay, let's see how about um I got another one? Uh go deliver a dare vile dog. That's a good one. It doesn't make sense, but it's pretty great. Well, and by makes sense. It just it's a sentence and not just a collection of words. What about don't nod it's perfect? Or taco cat the classic taco cat. Taco cats good or there's another one with the cat too. Was it a car or a cat? I saw, that's a good one. I've got another one from that trailer. Mr owl ate my, it'll worm. Okay, what else? And then go hang a salami? I'm a lasagna hog. Who's this? That? That was a guy named John A g Um but just the sheer joy. These these are sort of like um uh crossword puzzle enthusiasts, like just people who really get into words. Uh. And I just couldn't get enough of it. I'm gonna try and find the whole documentary. UM. I did see in February two two there was a computer scientist named Peter Norvig who used a computer program to break the record for the quote longest Balandrume sentence, which was seventeen thousand plus words. It's just a computer program putting together a bunch of words. Oh yeah, that doesn't count. And I see, I see, yeah, that's but they said that he's the world record holder. And I was like, come on, man, maybe in the future, but you know, John A. G By the way, is um children's book author a beloved one according to the Penguin Random House website. Very cool. I also found. The longest word is a Finnish palindrome, which has I think nineteen letters. S ai you well, I can't say it. Uh sapua kibikw ps. You just converted me back into a boy. It's a dealer in lie apparently, so okay, a lie seller, yeah, I think so okay. Um. One last thing. Um always talked about this guy that she dated that used to mess with people, and Um whenever palindromes came up, he'd said, yeah, my favorite one is Penis sniper and just wait for them to like go over in their head and they'd be like, wait, this is not a palindrome, but you're sitting there thinking exactly. Yeah. I think this last one was pretty funny to me just because it was well. Two of them, to me, are very funny because they're so basic. One is Stella won no wallets, m M. It's a big wallet competition. And then this guy's like clearly a citrus street vendor. No lemon, no melon. But I like that one too. It's um. The word melon itself has a nice round feeling to it. I love the word melon yeah, and lemon too, just because it's evocative of that beautiful color too. Yeah, that might be my favorite one. Now. No lemon, no melon, Yeah, but I like how you say it as well. No lemon, no melon, that's right, only pineapple. So we could probably see here for the next two hours doing they should we just cut this short. Well, we'll stop recording and then you and I have just continue to do it on our right, all right, all right, Well to the rest of you, See you guys later. Because short stuff is that stuff you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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