A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same both backwards and forwards, like the title of the book Go Hang a Salami! I’m a Lasagna Hog! The SymmyS Awards, bestowed by The Palindromist Magazine are the Oscars of the palindrome world. Recent winners included one called “Espresso Rescue”: Had a tonic? Cuppa cappuccino, ta-dah! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Palindromist Press SymmyS Awards”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A palindrome is a word or a sentence that can be read forwards and backwards, like race car, for example. Spelled the same way both ways.
Do you have a favorite palindrome?
No, but there used to be a Twitter account called Palindrome Tweet. They stopped tweeting in 2010, but it’s still a load of palindromic sentences they have. They’re like, cigar, toss it in a can. It is so tragic.
And that whole sentence is a palindrome.
That’s fantastic.
Wonton on salad?
Alas, no, not now.
Those are good.
Yeah, they are. I think my all-time favorite used to be sit on a pan, Otis. But I have some new favorites now.
Oh, I see. And these are from a contest run by one of the world’s top palindrome writers, Mark Saltvite.
How do we get that job?
I don’t know.
Oh, wait, I have to actually be interested in palindrome.
Yeah, well, you can read his magazine, which is called The Palindromist. And every year he offers the Oscars of palindromes. And there are a whole lot of categories this year, but I wanted to share a couple of them.
These are from the short palindromes category. And I think you’ll appreciate these. One thing that I like about these is that they all have titles. It’s not just the palindrome, but a title to sort of help you understand.
So here’s one of the winners. It’s Espresso Rescue. That’s the title.
Had a tonic? Cup of cappuccino. Ta-da! That works.
It’s true. That’s totally what happens with espresso, right? You’re like, suddenly I’m alive!
Totally, for me. But here’s my favorite. This one is called election dilemma.
Okay. No one to vote no on. No one to vote no on. Right?
Yeah, how many elections has that absolutely been true?
Every election. I don’t want to vote yes. I want to vote you suckers out. Let’s leave the chair empty for a while.
Well, I have lots more palindromes to share, but I will do that later in the show. And in the meantime, we’d love to hear your stories and thoughts and comments about language.
Call us 877-929-9673 or send your questions about language to words@waywordradio.org.
