Palindromes and sweet dreams

Tomorrow has a palindromic number for its date: 21.2.12. There was one in January, on 21.1.12, and there will be more this year - the 21st of every single digit month, and November.

The same will happen next year, starting with 31.1.13 and after that there will be no more palindromic dates for a long while (does 02.1.20 count?)

This got me thinking, in a strange-over-tired-out-of-the-box sort of way - besides names like Hannah and Eve, and Dad and Mum - what if other things in life were palindromes? Are there any physical palindromes? - an egg timer, exactly half-poured, laid on its side? Is deja vu, in fact, a palindrome in linear time? - probably not, unless one thought is the exact reverse of the other. What about the infinite reflections when you stand half way between two facing mirrors? And finally - final, because I need to sleep; could counting sheep be palindromic? - what about Newton's Third law of motion - every action has an equal and opposite reaction - if the point where equal and opposite meet is the equivalent of the month in the dates above and the equal and opposite forces are the date and the year, then surely this is a palindromic law of physics?

None of this matters of course, but a bit of trivial nonsense is good for all of us from time to time.

Comments

Colour, Delacroix, flochetage and why don't we all have a go at inventing words

Yes - it is a real word. Flochetage. Well, a real-ish word. One invented by the painter Delacroix, when he found the dictionary cupboard bare and required a word to describe his technique of layering different coloured paints, using lightly pulled brush strokes to create texture and pattern and thereby enhance his base-layer colours (... lost? - stick around, read on and all will become clear. Or perhaps muddier ...). Flochetage implies both stringiness and threadiness. Apparently. And it sounds good - in a filling-the-mouth-with-sound sort of a way. Try it ... flochetaaaage. Not that I speak French. So I am probably mis-pronouncing it. Nor am I an artist. So what do I know about painting techniques - except that I think this one works. What I do like is the concept - you invent a new technique in whatever it is you do, hunt around for the vocabulary to describe it, find the dictionary is lacking, so make up a word of your own and announce to the world what it means. Delacroix isn...

My beloved boy, how lucky I have been

It's an odd thing that when we are waiting for someone to die ... and I say someone here even though the one in question was a dog - but to us he had character and a place forever in our hearts and was more of a familiar someone than some of the people in our lives. So, I'll start again - it's an odd thing that when we are waiting for someone to die, our senses go into overdrive. We notice things that normally would be part of the background of our every day. We breathe more - or rather, we don't but what we do is notice our breathing more, as we watch his. We pause. We think. We listen to ourselves and our inner voices speak. Memories flood our dreams ... though sleep is fitful. Why am I telling you this? ... ... we lost this beautiful boy today And in the hours before he went, I saw perfect spheres of dew on blades of grass - little orbs holding micro-images of our world; a bumble bee drunk on nectar, yellow-dusted with pollen, resting in a crocus; ten - yes, ten! ...

Temptation, virtual strawberries and a pretty useless tooth fairy

Littlest in the car on the way home from school: "What does tempted mean?" "And determined - isn't that the same?" Somehow, we got onto strawberries and in particular the last strawberry sitting, lonely, on a plate. "So, if I'm tempted to have the strawberry that just means that I'd really like it. And if I'm determined to have it, then I'm jolly well not going to share it, and it's mine, no matter what." Think she got that one! She's also tempted to sack the tooth fairy who has forgotten every night for the last 2 weeks to deliver payment for her tooth and if I might speak on behalf of the tooth fairy, there is equal determination on her side to remember. Maybe.

Walking The Dog

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