Happy Palindrome Week! So What Exactly are We Celebrating?

Maybe I'm a numbers nerd or maybe I just like fun little things like is happening this week but starting today, 2/21/22, it is a palindrome week (it's actually eight days, so a week and a day, but I digress). This means when you write down the numbered date, month/date/year, it will be the same both forwards and backwards. Something special will also happen on Tuesday, 2/22/22.

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Starting today, 2/21/22, through next Monday, 2/28/22, the numbered date will read the same forwards and backwards. This is called a palindrome. What's fun about this week, too, is that on Tuesday, 2/22/22 at 2:22 a.m. and 2:22 p.m., the numbered date and time will be all 2's both forwards and backwards.

The English language is full of words that are palindromes. When you look up the definition of palindrome, this is what you get according to palindromelist.net:

Palindrome: a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of symbols or elements, whose meaning may be interpreted the same way in either forward or reverse direction. Famous examples include "Amore, Roma", "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama" and "No ‘x’ in ‘Nixon". Composing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing. The word “palindrome” was coined from the Greek roots palin (“again”) and dromos (“way, direction”) by the English writer Ben Jonson in the 17th century.

I'm not going to try to list every palindrome word in the English language but I'll give you a few examples:

• Bib
• Mom
• Dad
• Racecar
• Deified
• Radar
• Rotator
• Murdrum
• Ailihphilia - which ironically means the love of palindromes

If you really want to get nerdy with this, sentences can be palindromes as well.

• Dammit, I'm mad!
• No lemon, no melon.
• Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.
• Was it a car or a cat I saw?

There you have it, your bit of useless knowledge you can pass around the water cooler at work today. Happy palindrome week my friends.