Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Palindromes

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

Chuck loves palindromes. So much that his very name is one. Oh wait... Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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 palindrome says it turns out. I do too. I think it's pretty neat. The one that gets me is when somebody's like, this number is a palindrome. I just wrote it out. Yeah, I don't get that. It's 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 palindrome, be quiet. Be quiet once and for all. Yeah, I'm glad you said that because this article even from howstuffworks.com says some numbers are palindrome. It's like 18081. Right. Like this one that I just wrote out. Any number. Exactly. 54, palindrome. That's not what we're talking about. We're not

going to give another breath to that stupidness. No, we're not. Instead, we're going to talk about real palindromes, which is a word, a phrase, a poem even as we'll see 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 going to 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, no. Well, we'll talk about that in a second. Okay. I prefer that as well. I like 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 70 CE. And it's in Latin. Chuck, do you want to take a crack at it? You just turned me into a tree. It's very lovely. It doesn't matter what it's saying in Latin. We Americans say all Latin like we're in a Harry Potter movie. Yeah, like Evil Dead, Klatu, Virata. That's a day to the earth to the still. No. Yes, it is. It's the Evil Dead. My friend and they stole it from the day

of the earth to the still because that is the I don't remember what it was. Klatu, Virata, Niktu. Yeah, that's from the day of the earth to the side promise. Well, then they ganked it in Evil Dead, which is better. I think it was more an homage. Probably so. Okay. But to hear it come out of Bruce Campbell's mouth is sure that's the money shot. I mean, they really went off the rails on those movies, huh? Yeah, they're making another one, I think. When? I don't know, like a Bruce Campbell one, like a sequel to Army of Darkness. Boy, that's going to be great. Yeah, can't wait. Okay, so what did that that palindrome you said mean? It means the sower arepo holds the wheel with effort or the sower arepo 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 that 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, totally. And Chuck, 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. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Hard podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael, and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology.

And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars. If you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird. Fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Alright, we're back. And by modern day, of course, I mean the 1630s. Yeah, the first mention of palindromes in English is in Camden's Remains by John Philippot from 1636. Palindromes are those where the syllables are saying backward and forward. So, Alblata et alba si numy imunis. 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, you know. Philippot 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 Klatu Varad atone to Chuck's reading of it. It's not until 1706 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. Lude, did I live in evil? Did I dwell? That's a good one. There's a couple problems with it. One, they had to drop off the second L and dwell to make it the reverse of Lude. 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 18th century, everybody kind of chose to overlook the and part. That's right. Then we can skip the part about numbers being palindromes because that's just rage inducing. Well, no, the date makes sense. So 1221 is a palindrome. January 20th, 2021 was a palindrome. That's worth mentioning. 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 I ran across it in this article by James A. Linden called Doppelganger. And it is itself a palindrome like where you can actually read it from you could go to the very end and read it or you can go to the beginning and read it and it's going to be the same. So you don't read the actual words like the word itself backwards, but you read the order of the words backwards and forwards. And the whole thing hinges on the phrase night after night, which is pretty it's 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 swings on a hinge. It's really neat. I like it. I like it too. It's not one of your perfect proper palindromes 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 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 insight in two minutes. That sounds like a crew that Hodgman would hang out with. Yeah, probably so. But it covered in part the Palindrome Championships, which is basically where they get palindrome enthusiasts 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.

You have 90 minutes to write out original palindromes and then the audience, a live audience votes. Weird Al is in it. He's a palindromist. Danica McKellar, Winnie from Wonder Years is one. You know, she wrote like a science or no, a math book, a textbook. Oh, really? Yeah. 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. Uzi rat in a sanitary zoo. That's a good one. I think Danica 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. Here was another one from the documentary. Gerda Boston's IQ is not so bad, Reg. That's a good one. Wow. Who's was that? Just a contestant. No one famous. Lloyd Benson?

Sure. Okay. Let's see. How about, I got another one. 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'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 cat's 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 metal worm. Okay. What else? Then go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog. Who's is that?

That was a guy named John Agee. But just to share joy, these are sort of like crossword puzzle enthusiasts, like just people who really get into words. And I just couldn't get enough of it. I'm going to try and find the whole documentary. I did see in February 2002, there was a computer scientist named Peter Norvig, who used a computer program to break the record for the quote, longest palindrome sentence, which was 17,000 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. 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 Agee, by the way, is a 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, 19 letters, S-A-I-P-P-U.

I can't say it. Come on. I want to try to. Sapua kiwi kaupius. You just converted me back into a boy. It's a dealer in lie, apparently. Like a soap lie. Oh, okay. A lie seller.

Yeah, I think so. Okay. One last thing, Yumi always talks about this guy that she dated that used to mess with people and whenever palindromes came up, he'd say, yeah, my favorite one is penis sniper and just wait for them to like go over it in their head. They'd be like, wait, this is not a palindrome. But you're sitting there thinking penis sniper.

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. That's good. At the big wallet competition. Sure. And then this guy's like a clearly a citrus street vendor.

No lemon, no melon. I like that one too. 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, I agree. 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 sit here for the next two hours doing these. Should we just cut this short? Well, we'll stop recording and then you and I'll just continue to do it on our own.

All right. All right. Well, to the rest of you, see you guys later because short stuff is out. 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 are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.