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On this Day:
At 2:22 am on Tuesday February 22, 2022 is a Palindome Date:
| Feb 22, 2022 at 2:22:22 am | M-DD-YY H:MI:SS | 2-22-22 2:22:22 | 22222-22222 | Palindrome (reverse) |
Palindrome Days happen when the day’s date can be read the same way backward and forward. The dates are similar to word palindromes in that they are symmetrical.
Because date formats vary from country to country, not all dates that are palindromic in one kind of date format are Palindrome Days in another. For instance, February 20, 2022 or 2-20-22 is a palindromic date in the m-dd-yy format, but it isn’t if you write the date as dd-m-yyyy (20-2-2022) or dd-mm-yyyy formats (20-02-2022).
February 2, 2022 is a palindrome date. Because all the digits in the date when written in the d-m-yy (2-2-22) or m-d-yy (2-2-22) format are twos, the date is being called Two’s Day.
February 22, 2022 is a palindrome day in the m-dd-yy format (2-22-22). It falls on a Tuesday, the second day of the week in many cultures around the world. This has prompted the media to call the day Twosday.
Depending on date formats, palindromic dates can be rare. Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, has calculated that in the mm-dd-yyyy format, Palindrome Days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium (1000 years). The last palindromic date in the second millennium (years 1001 to 2000) in this format was August 31, 1380 or 08-31-1380.
According to Dr. Inan, in the mm-dd-yyyy format, the first of 36 Palindrome Days in the current millennium (January 1, 2001 to December 31, 3000) was October 2, 2001 (10-02-2001) and the last such day will be September 22, 2290 (09-22-2290).
There are 12 Palindrome Days in the 21st century in the mm-dd-yyyy format. The first one was on October 2, 2001 (10-02-2001) and the last one will be on September 2, 2090 (09-02-2090).
In the dd-mm-yyyy format, there are 29 Palindrome Days in the current century. The first was 10 February 2001 (10-02-2001). The last is a special one – it’s a leap day! 29 February 2092 (29-02-2092) will be the last Palindrome Day of the 21st century.
Palindrome Weeks
The back-to-back Palindrome Days in the m-dd-yy format are not that rare. For example, every year since 2011 has had 10 consecutive Palindrome Days.
The month in which this happens always corresponds to the last digit of the year. In 2011, the Palindrome Week ran from January 10, 2011 (1-10-11) to January 19, 2011 (1-19-11). In 2012, the same sequence of dates occurred in February. In 2017, it happened in July, in 2018 in August and in 2019, it happened in September (per https://www.timeanddate.com/date/palindrome-day.html).
First, a Story:
What is the fear of palindromes called?
Aibohphobia.
Aibohphobia – a humorous term for the fear of palindromes, which is a palindrome itself. The term is a piece of computer humor entered into the 1981 The Devil’s DP Dictionary (per Wikipedia).
Second, a Song:
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 14, 1965, and released as a single by Columbia Records, catalogue number 43242, on March 8. It was the lead track on the album Bringing It All Back Home, released some two weeks later. It was Dylan’s first Top 40 hit in the United States, peaking at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also entered the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. The song has subsequently been reissued on numerous compilations, the first being the 1967 singles compilation Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. One of Dylan’s first electric recordings, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is also notable for its innovative film clip, which first appeared in D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary Don’t Look Back. An acoustic version of the song, recorded the day before the single, was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
It is ranked 187th on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In its contemporary review, Cash Box described it as a “rockin’-country folk blueser with a solid beat and catchy lyrics” and “wild” guitar and harmonica playing.
Alfred Matthew “Weird Al” Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, record producer, and actor who is known for humorous songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. He also performs original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, as well as polka medleys of several popular songs, most of which feature his trademark accordion.
Since having a comedy song aired in 1976, Yankovic has sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parodies and original songs, and performed more than 1,000 live shows. His work has earned him five Grammy Awards and a further 11 nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the U.S. His first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single (“White & Nerdy”) were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career. His latest album, Mandatory Fun (2014), became his first number-one album during its debut week.
Yankovic’s success comes in part from his effective use of music videos to further parody pop culture, the song’s original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. He directed later videos himself and went on to direct for other artists, including Ben Folds, Hanson, the Black Crowes, and the Presidents of the United States of America. With the decline of music television and the onset of social media, he used YouTube and other video sites to publish his videos; this strategy helped to boost sales of his later albums. He has stated that he may forgo traditional albums in favor of timely releases of singles from the 2010’s onwards.
In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic wrote and starred in the film UHF (1989) and the television series The Weird Al Show (1997). He has also made guest appearances and performed voice acting roles on many television shows and video web content, in addition to starring in Al TV specials on MTV. He has also written two children’s books, When I Grow Up (2011) and My New Teacher and Me! (2013).
Legacy and influence
With “Word Crimes” from Mandatory Fun debuting at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014, Yankovic became the third musical artist after Michael Jackson and Madonna to have a song in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 over each decade since the 1980s, his other Top 40 songs being “Eat It”, “Smells Like Nirvana”, and “White & Nerdy”. Since then, only U2 and Kenny G have also entered this group. Billboard named Yankovic #15 of the top 100 music video artists of all time in an August 2020 compilation, addressing that alongside his musical fame, “his accompanying video parodies are a vital part of the recipe”.
With his four-decade career, Yankovic’s work has also influenced newer artists. Andy Samberg of the group The Lonely Island considered Yankovic an influence during his childhood. Lin-Manuel Miranda directly credits Yankovic as an influence on his musical Hamilton. Television producer Michael Schur considered that Yankovic’s music represented a “deep egalitarian spirit of our culture” that allowed his comedy writers to reflect on society within his shows.
In 2020, Mark Riedl, a researcher at Georgia Tech, created an algorithm that generates lyrics to match the rhyme and syllable schemes of preexisting songs. The algorithm was called “Weird A.I. Yankovic” in reference to Yankovic’s similar song parodies.
Courtesy of Stevie Kaze and YouTube.com, here is Weird Al Yankovic parodying Bob Dylan in his song “BOB”, where all the lyrics are palindromes. I hope you enjoy this!
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfIikFnvuI)
And if you want to watch the original Bob Dylan video that Weird Al parodied:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mb3CoWwNyY)
Thought for the Day:
“We are all made from star dust and we will all return to star dust, like a cosmic palindrome.” – A.S. King
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Have a great day!
Dave & Colleen
© 2021 David J. Bilinsky and Colleen E. Bilinsky
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