Today's Date And These Phrases Are All Palindromes

If your Ah Lian friend dropped one of her elaborate acrylic nails in your living room on a visit, and you came across it, you could ask someone, "Ah Lian nail ha?"

And if you wrote that down, and read the phrase backwards, it would still read "Ah Lian nail ha". And that, my friend, is a palindrome - a word, phrase, number or sequence of words that read the same backward as they do forward.

The word "palindrome" comes from the Greek words "palin" (meaning "back") and "dromos" (meaning "direction"). Apparently, the phrase alluded to the way a crab moves.

And today's date (22 Feb 2022) in numeric form will probably send numerologists (and lottery fans) into a frenzy: 22022022. Not only that, if you abbreviate the number to just 22/2/22, you'll see that the 22nd of January to September and November this year are all palindromes:

• 22/1/22
• 22/2/22
• 22/3/22
• 22/4/22
• 22/5/22
• 22/6/22
• 22/7/22
• 22/8/22
• 22/9/22
• 22/11/22

Happy Twosday!

If you're wondering why people are wishing each other "Happy Twosday!" online and on social media, it's because all the two's in today's date have lined up on a Tuesday. Fun fact: this is such a rare occurence that the next time all the two's in a date line up on a Tuesday will happen... in 400 years, in the year 2422.  I think let's focus o the next 400 days first, shall we? 

Ways to use palindromes in real life

You can use this on Third Aunt when she asks, "Did you find a girlfriend this year?":

• I did, did I?

When relatives who haven't visited in two years drop by and don't realise you adopted two dogs during CB:

• Step on no pets.

And if your friend asks, "Anyone wants fruit juice?", you can answer, "Yes please!" and add:

• No lemon, no melon.

And after stuffing your face with all those pineapple tarts, bak kwa and love letters over CNY (and are still doing so because Mum is nagging you to finish the leftovers), you can tell yourself that your home for the rest of the year will be:

• My gym.

via GIPHY

Bonus palindrome: "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" is a Latin palindrome which is actually a riddle that translates to: “We enter the circle at night and are consumed by fire” or “We turn in circles in the night and are devoured by fire.”

The answer: Moths.

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