Cephalogenic

or, stuff that I dragged out of my head

Name:
Location: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Backup

I like wordplay, sort of: I'm very fond of cryptic crosswords, which depend on it, and I sure do like banging words around to see what happens. But I hate puns (the lowest form of wit, indeed), and palindromes are not too far behind. So laboured, so tortured, so senseless!

There are, though, some good ones, and they're usually the shorter ones. The only palindromes I can really love are the ones that, like good cryptic-crossword clues, can masquerade as real sentences--that don't excite any suspicion that they're what they are. Stealth palindromes!

Today on BoingBoing there's a link to a "Giant List of Palindromes", and they're not kidding, either: there are hundreds of the suckers. (Also some anagrams.) Most of the palindromes aren't very good, in my opinion ("No cab, no tuna nut on bacon"--ugh), but there are some genuine treasures on the list: "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm" is sublime, as is "So many dynamos".

They don't all have to be stealthy to win my approval, though, not if they're really good. There's a local catering company that has a big, obvious, thoroughly delightful palindrome on its truck(s):

Y Not Tony

Y not, indeed?

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