Palindrome Sunday!
@owlwings (43915)
Cambridge, England
February 2, 2020 6:31am CST
Today is a most unusual day because, whichever way you write the date - MM/DD/YYYY, as in America; YYYY/MM/DD, if you are from Japan or DD/MM/YYYY like most of the rest of the world - it is what is called a palindrome which means that it's symmetrical and reads the same way forwards as backwards.
02022020 (or 20200202)
I don't think that we shall be able to do this again until the 3rd of March 3030 - another thousand years (if anyone then will be writing their dates the same way).
'Palindrome' comes from two Greek words. The '-drome' part is fairly familiar from 'aerodrome' and 'hippodrome' and 'aquadrome', &c. It means 'road' or 'course' or 'a running track' or just 'the act of running'. The 'palin-' part is not as common and there are no other common words which use it (which is a shame). It just means 'forwards and backwards', 'both ways' or 'repeatedly'.
The first words ever supposed to have been spoken by a human are also a palindrome:
"Madam in Eden, I'm Adam!"
Just one of those little curiosities which delight the small minds of owls and others!
19 people like this
17 responses
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
2 Feb 20
I love such things! You don't enjoy dates which are called Schnaps number in German, do you? We think that they are lucky numbers. Many people married on November 11th, 2011, - 11/11/11 - preferably at 11 o'clock.
When you go shopping and the till shows such a number, the customer and the client are happy and share a smile.
4 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
2 Feb 20
I think that we've discussed this before. We don't have a name for them (I suppose we'd call them 'Snap' dates if we did) but they are sometimes considered 'lucky'. There were a lot of weddings celebrated on 7 July 2007, as my son discovered when he was trying to book a venue for his (not realising the significance of the date!).
One can only hope that those marriages had a better survival rate than average! My son's, at least, seems to have done!
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104632)
• United States
2 Feb 20
I am feeling quite doubtful that people will even be writing the date out by the year 3030. If all of those future novelists and screenwriters can be believed, we won't need to write anything at all as a computer will do it for us.
That's already a possibility today, after all.
I learned something new today, I wasn't aware that Japan wrote the date with the year first.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
2 Feb 20
I wonder what the world will be like in 100 years time. 1000 years ago my ancestors were speaking Anglo-Saxon and Danish and Norman French (I don't know about yours) and couldn't possibly have imagined a world such as ours. Most of it would have seemed like pure witchcraft to them!
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104632)
• United States
2 Feb 20
@owlwings Mostly England, Germany, maybe some Dutch... Ireland and Scotland is also in there as well. Our ancestors probably took much the same path.
Yes, I'd love to know what my ancestors thought of eclipses of the sun, for instance.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
2 Feb 20
@ScribbledAdNauseum I don't know about eclipses but Halley's comet caused a bit of a stir in 1066!
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
1 Jun 20
I knew about the dates (and I miss them every time) and the sentence palindrome is something I have seen before, but not the one you posted.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (95082)
• Marion, Ohio
2 Feb 20
I seen somewhere that it will be just a little over 100 years and it will happen again. Dont remember the date tho.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
31 Mar 20
It's lovely to see you are still about!
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
1 Apr 20
@owlwings I really only am to vent a little now that Im stuck at home and having to deal with the mental problems that come with a massive schedule change, and the level of anxiety in the world today. It IS nice talking to people again here though
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (86732)
• United States
2 Feb 20
A great curiosity indeed Owl thanks
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
8 Feb 20
My wifes birthday later in the month is on the 20th. So her birthday this year will be 20.02.2020. I have booked dinner for twenty past eight. So her birthday dinner will be at 20:20. 20.02.2020/
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
2 Feb 20
Great minds.... I just wrote a post about this date, LOL
1 person likes this
