Palindromes

Hot and muggy again.  Drs Tolle and Wen pulled a bagel shaped mass of wax from my right ear and I can hear again.  Quite a difference.  I was always taught to never put anything smaller than my elbow into my ears.  Dr. Tolle agrees and doesn't even want me to put a Q-tip in my ears.  However, she neglected to tell me how to get rid of wax buildups... I guess that means that I get to see her more often.

My copy of the Funny Paper came yesterday.  I love that sheet.  In this September issue, if you cut out all the cartoons, stories and references to Donald Trump, you would not have enough paper left to wad into a ball.  However, today, I want to talk about something else.

Palindromes

In 1987, I prepared a "paper" for Bob Hale, a creator of the Wordsmiths at the Social Security Administration.  One of Bob's grandmothers was the creator of the poem "Mary had a little lamb," among others, so Bob is trying to live up to her standards.  I have printed some of his work on this blog.  Meanwhile, I decided to help him by giving him information for his literary newsletter:

The word palindrome comes from the Greek "palindromes" =  running back again.  "pallin" = back, again;  "dromos: = to run.  The word palindrome means: a word, verse or sentence that reads the same backward or forward.  For Example:

Oldest palindrome:   Madam, I am Adam.
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Latin:  Signa te, signa: temere ne tangis et angis.

(Cross yourself; cross.  You touch and torment me in vain. .... Thus says a martyr, as he defies the fire.)
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Latin:  Si nummi immunis.

(Lawyer: Give me a fee, and you can go free.)
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Latin:  Satire Veritas.  (There is truth in satire.)
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Latin:  Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor. (Rome, you move us suddenly to love.)
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Athletic palindrome: Yale relay.
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Automobile palindrome:  A Toyota.
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Police line-up palindrome:  Name no one man.
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Hitler's autobiography:  I, Zany Nazi.
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Lady MacBeth:  Dame Mad
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Vietnam palindrome:  Tet
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New product:  Lion oil.
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New York palindrome:  Niagara, o roar again.
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Social Security Administration palindrome:  Some men interpret nine memos.
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Drunkard's palindrome:  Was it a car or a cat I saw?
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Re: New Bedford canal engineer Goethals:    A man, a plan, Panama.

(sometimes said to be about President Teddy Roosevelt.)
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Re:  Phony Stradivarius:  Egad! a base tone denotes a bad age.

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You're right, I didn't create all of these, just a few.  Instead, I stole some of them directly from works by the following geniuses that I admired:

Joseph T. Shipley
(Noted critic and author.  He died at the age of 94 in 1988.)
Latest books by Shipley:  Origins of English Words (1984)
                                          Playing with Words (1960)

Solomon W. Golomb
(1932-2016)  He was born in Baltimore
He was a professor of electrical engineering at USC.

He invented Cheskers in 1948.
He introduced us to Polyominoes and Pentominoes in 1953.

Professor Otto R. Osseforp... the first holder of Harvards prestigious Emor D. Nilap  chair of Palindromology... at least that is what Solomon told us.
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