Murder for a jar of red rum.

Some sort of Stephen-esque thought train led me to wonder who on earth spends their time sitting around coming up with palindromes. You might think, "Well, no one does. That's why there's only two or three, like 'Madam, I'm Adam'."

Think again.

A simple Google search yields 941,000 results. Try it. Some of them are quite funny. Here's a few of my favorites:

-No, Mel Gibson is a casino's big lemon.

-Too bad I hid a boot.

-No sir -- away! A papaya war is on.

-Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?

And then of course they start to make less sense the longer they get, like this one:

Do good? I? No! Evil anon I deliver. I maim nine more hero-men in Saginaw, sanitary sword a-tuck, Carol, I -- lo! -- rack, cut a drowsy rat in Aswan. I gas nine more hero-men in Miami. Reviled, I (Nona) live on. I do, O God!

And then there are ones like these that make no sense at all but are quite funny:

Doctor Reubenstein was shocked and dismayed when he answered the ringing telephone, only to hear a strange, metallic, alien voice say, "Yasec iovn eilacilla temeg! Nartsa raehoty lnoenoh pelet gnig, nirehtde rewsnaehn ehw. Deya! Msid! Dnadek cohssaw nietsne buerro, tcod?"

And what's the world record for the longest, legitimate palindrome?

17,826 words.

I just wish I could have been there to watch that guy finally finish his palindromic masterpiece, sit back and let out an enormous sigh of accomplishment... and then go upstairs and make a sandwich.

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