(March 31, 2008) – Ever since I discovered that Elbert spelled backwards was treble (this was done while I was doodling left-handed during an 11th grade civics class), I have been fascinated by palindromes.
     At first, it was a name – Anna, Otto, Bob, Hannah; or a word – civic, level, radar, racecar. Then, while perusing a Reader's Digest, I read an entire paragraph that, if read in reverse, it was the same. Brilliant! I now wish that I had clipped that 25- or 30-word paragraph and saved it. I don't recall the subject matter, just that I was intrigued as a youth-who-dreamed-of-being-a-writer that a real author could pen such a literary gem.
     Well, I wrote a short story (or, maybe, a chapter in a sci-fi novel that gathers dust somewhere) that ended with the sentence: no evil did live on. A five-letter palindromic sentence.
     I have collected a few palindromes, finding them in a magazine; or as an example in a dictionary when I looked up the word "palindrome."
     My favorite palindrome is "a man, a plan, a canal – Panama!"
     Then there is the ribald one, "sex at noon taxes."
     And, the Philip K. Dick-esque one, "do geese see God?" Too bad his title, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", didn't read as a palindrome. Or, the movie adaptation, "Blade Runner."
     Did Napoleon really utter, "able was I ere I saw Elba"?
     A few more: "name no one man"; "never odd or even; "Zeus sees Suez"; "Madam I'm Adam"; "was it a cat I saw?"; and "Dennis sinned."
     Since I am a financial supporter of Pepsico Inc., I penned "Pepsi is pep!" while once kicked back on my sun porch and reflecting upon the taste of a Pepsi Cola and a Diet Pepsi. (Note to Pepsico's ad agency: the "copyrighted" phrase is available.)
     After this list, I had a bright idea – why not Google "palindrome" and see what I get – 639,000 hits.
     At www.palindromelist.com, there were hundreds and hundreds of palindromic sentences – even alphabetized and including "possibly the longest palindrome ever" (that made little sense to me).
     I checked under "N" and "no evil did live on" was not listed; however, there was "no evil I did, I live on."
     I checked under "P" and "Pepsi is pep" is unlisted.
     I looked under "Q" and there was not a single entry. Now, if only I could come up with a sentence beginning and ending with "Q" … hmmmmmm.
     I checked to see if "elbertreble" might be listed as a word and found "Elbert and Edna treble" (whatever that means).
     My Google search also revealed the history behind the Panama Palindrome at www.fun-with-words.com. It seems that "a man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" first appeared in 1948. The website listed numerous variations, including Jim Saxe's 1983 "a man, a plan, a cat, a canal, Panama!" and a 540-word rendition, concocted by Dan Hoey in 1984 by using a computer program and the Unix spelling dictionary. Hoey's paragraph did not flow smoothly, but it was a palindrome.
     And, finally, as Tarzan would say to Jane while in the deepest part of the river: "You be me buoy?"