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Short Stuff: Palindromes · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck. And I said hello with a silent h
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: at the end, which means I just said something in palindrome.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I love palindromes, as it turns out, Yeah, I do too,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and I think it's fat. The one that gets me
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is when somebody's like, this number is a palindrome. I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: just wrote it out. I don't get that, like that
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: doesn't count. Maybe if it's a date or something that
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you don't have any control over, then yeah, be a palindrome.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: But just anybody who's into numbers that are palindromes, be quiet,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Be quiet, once and for all. Yeah, I'm glad you
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: said that, because this article, even from how stuff works
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: dot com, says some numbers are palindromes, like one eight
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: zero zero eight one right, like that, I just wrote
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: out any number exactly. That's how we're talking about. We're
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: not going to give another breath to that stupidness. Instead,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about real palindromes, which is a word,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a phrase, a poem. Even as we'll see um that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: can be said the same forwards or backwards. And apparently
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: it comes from a little bit of Greek who like
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the palindromes. Yes, the word palin means back or again,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and dromos means running or moving, so it's a word
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: or phrase that's running back on itself. And I'm even
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: gonna go so far for me as to say I
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: only like palindromes that are literal, the letters backwards and forwards,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: like they make the case in here, like some phrases
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like night after night. I'm like, now, well, we'll talk
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: about that in a second. Okay, okay, I prefer that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: as well. I like the I like the the letters
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: back and forth, and that's that. But I will say
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: my eyes were open to that by this article. Fair enough,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: So the first palindrome, like I said, the Greeks liked it. Actually,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: it turns out the Romans did. But the Romans model
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of their society, if not all of it,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: on the ancient Greeks, so it's possible they ripped them off,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and that the Romans just happened to be the first
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: ones to mention it. But the first palindrome comes from
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: seventy c. E Um and it's in Latin. Chuck, do
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you want to take a crack at it? Storrepo tenant
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: opera rotas, you just turned me into a tree. It
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what it's saying in Latin,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: like we Americans say all Latin, like we're in a
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Harry Potter movie. Yeah, like Evil Dead Klatto verata, that's
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a Day to the Earth. It's still, Yes, it is.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: It's the Evil Dead, my friend. Then they stole it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: from the Day of the Earth, said still, because that
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is the I don't even remember what it was. Yeah,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: that's from the Day of the Earth's still, I promise. Well,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: then they ganked it in Evil Dead, which is better.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I think it was more in homage probably, Okay, but
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to hear it come out of Bruce Campbell's mouth, is
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: that's the money shot. I mean, they really went off
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the rails on those movies. Yeah, they're making another one,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I think when I don't know, like a Bruce Campbell one,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: like a sequel to Army of Dark's Boy, that's going
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: to be great. You can't wait. Okay, So what did
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that um? That palindrome you said mean it means the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: sower Rabo holds the wheel with effort, or the sower
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Arabo leads with his hands with his hand the plow.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Nothing that matters at all to any of us alive today.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But I'm sure back in the day the Romans were
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: like that is everyone really spoke to me, you know
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: what I mean. But it goes to show that, like
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: word play has been around for almost as long as words.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah and chuck, um, it wasn't just the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: ancient Romans who were into it, that that love of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: it has survived. And I say we pick up with
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the modern day after taking a short break. What do
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you think let's do it? Okay, all right, we're back
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: by modern day of course, I mean the sixteen thirties. Yeah.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: The first mention of palindromes in English is in Camden's
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Remains by John philipot from six. Palindrums are those where
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the syllables are same backward and forward. So all blatta
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: at alba see new me in mounis very nice, which
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: means secluded but pure. Give me my fee and I
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: warrant you free, okay, which is great that you have
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: a palindrome that also rhymes, because that's not necessarily part
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: and parcel with it. Um. Philip HoTT was just showing off.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: But you'll note that he's an English speaker and he
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: wrote an English speaking book, Camden's Remains, but it was
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: still in Latin, hence the whole clattoo verada tone to
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Chuck's reading of it. It's not until seventeen o six
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that we find the first written English palindrome in an
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: English dictionary called the New World of Words or Universal
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: English Dictionary. And this is as follows, lewd did I live?
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And evil did I dwell? Yeah, there's there's a couple
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: of problems with it. One, they had to drop off
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the second l and dwell to make it the reverse
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of lud. And then there's also the whole and in
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the middle of it, which does not part of a palindrome.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: It's not a palindrome itself, and it kind of screws
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: up the whole palindrome. But because it was the beginning
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, everybody kind of chose to overlook
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the and part. That's right. Uh, then we can skip
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the part about numbers being palindromes because that's just rage inducing. Well, no,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the date makes sense, so one is a palindrome. January
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: was a palindrome day fourth mentioning you know, we'll take that,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: but give me your eye opening with the thing like
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: night after night, which just sort of makes me mad too.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: So there's a there's a really neat poem that I
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: hadn't heard of until um I ran across it in
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: this article by James A. Linden called Doppelganger, and it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: is itself a palindrome like where you can actually um
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: read it from. You could go to the very end
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and read it, or you can go to the beginning
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: to read it, and it's going to be the same.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: So you don't read the actual words, but like the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: word itself backwards, but you read the order of the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: words backwards and forwards, and the whole thing hinges on.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Um the phrase night after night, which is pretty a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: pretty awesome poem to tell you the truth. Let me
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: just read you the middle part where it hinges, and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I think you'll be properly blown away. Okay. I puzzled
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: over it, hiding alone, watching the woman as she neared
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the gate. He came and I saw him crouching, night
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: after night. Night after night he came, and I saw
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: him crouching, watching the woman as she neared the gate.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I puzzled over it, hiding alone, and it's just like
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the poem starts out and then it gets to night
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: after night and then goes back. It's like it's swings
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: on a hinge. It's really neat. I like it. I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: like it too. It's not one of your perfect, proper
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: palin drums or anything, but it's still pretty cool. So
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: here's my thing is, I started kind of diving into
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: this online and found out that there a is a
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: documentary called The Palindromists, which I didn't watch, but I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: did watch the trailer, which was fun enough and kind
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: of gave me enough inside in two minutes. That sounds
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: like a crew that Hodgeman would hang out with, probably
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: so um. But it covered in part the Palindrome Championships,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: which is basically where they get palindrome enthusiast together at
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a hotel ballroom and they say, you've got nine. They
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: have three constraints. They didn't mention the constraints in the trailer. Uh,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you have ninety minutes to write out original palindromes and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: then the audience alive audience votes and weird Owl is
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: in it. He's a palindromist. Um. Uh. Danika mckeller Winnie
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: from one of years is one. You know she wrote
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: like a science or no, a math book. Well do
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you know what? She also wrote? What tons of UFO snot?
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: What is that? It's a palindrome? Oh that's a good one. Okay,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: weird al wrote this one Suzy rat in a sanitary zoo.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: That's so Dana wins so far. My deal with these
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: is once I started kind of seeing this community is
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: not only do I love a palindrome, but I like
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: an original one that someone can invent that kind of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: makes sense and it's not just a collection of words
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: like do geese? See god? Yeah, that makes sense? It does. Uh.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Here was another one from the documentary Gerda Boston's i
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Q is not so bad? Reg h, that's a good one. Wow,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: who'ss that? Just a contestant? No one famous Lloyd Benson. Sure, okay,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: let's see how about um I got another one? Uh
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: go deliver a dare vile dog. That's a good one.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense, but it's pretty great. Well, and
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: by makes sense. It just it's a sentence and not
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: just a collection of words. What about don't nod it's perfect?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Or taco cat the classic taco cat. Taco cats good
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: or there's another one with the cat too. Was it
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: a car or a cat? I saw, that's a good one.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I've got another one from that trailer. Mr owl ate my,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: it'll worm. Okay, what else? And then go hang a salami?
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I'm a lasagna hog. Who's this? That? That was a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: guy named John A g Um but just the sheer joy.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: These these are sort of like um uh crossword puzzle enthusiasts,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: like just people who really get into words. Uh. And
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I just couldn't get enough of it. I'm gonna try
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and find the whole documentary. UM. I did see in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: February two two there was a computer scientist named Peter
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Norvig who used a computer program to break the record
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: for the quote longest Balandrume sentence, which was seventeen thousand
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: plus words. It's just a computer program putting together a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: bunch of words. Oh yeah, that doesn't count. And I see,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I see, yeah, that's but they said that he's the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: world record holder. And I was like, come on, man,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: maybe in the future, but you know, John A. G
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: By the way, is um children's book author a beloved
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: one according to the Penguin Random House website. Very cool.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I also found. The longest word is a Finnish palindrome,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: which has I think nineteen letters. S ai you well,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I can't say it. Uh sapua kibikw ps. You just
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: converted me back into a boy. It's a dealer in
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: lie apparently, so okay, a lie seller, yeah, I think
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: so okay. Um. One last thing. Um always talked about
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: this guy that she dated that used to mess with people,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and Um whenever palindromes came up, he'd said, yeah, my
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: favorite one is Penis sniper and just wait for them
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to like go over in their head and they'd be like, wait,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: this is not a palindrome, but you're sitting there thinking exactly. Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I think this last one was pretty funny to me
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: just because it was well. Two of them, to me,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: are very funny because they're so basic. One is Stella
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: won no wallets, m M. It's a big wallet competition.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: And then this guy's like clearly a citrus street vendor.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: No lemon, no melon. But I like that one too.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: It's um. The word melon itself has a nice round
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: feeling to it. I love the word melon yeah, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: lemon too, just because it's evocative of that beautiful color too. Yeah,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: that might be my favorite one. Now. No lemon, no melon, Yeah,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: but I like how you say it as well. No lemon,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: no melon, that's right, only pineapple. So we could probably
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: see here for the next two hours doing they should
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: we just cut this short. Well, we'll stop recording and
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: then you and I have just continue to do it
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: on our right, all right, all right, Well to the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: rest of you, See you guys later. Because short stuff
• 12:42
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• 12:48
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