Written by Leonard R. Jaffee   

The term "palindrome" is not a palindrome — since, backwards, it is "emordnilap" (a word that begs the question of what kind of "lap" is "emordni"). Compare true word-palindromes: dad, did, eve, kook, mom, peep, pop, toot, wow (each the same forward & backward). Distinguish pseudo-palindrome words — words that spell others backward: star (rats), abut (tuba), step (pets), emit (time). "Palindrome" is neither.

For dessert, compare phrase-palindromes and sentence-palindromes, like "politics of religion & religion of politics," or another pertinent here: "Blessed are they that believe that they are blessed."

Likely the term "palindrome" was created by a politician or religious leader. The term "palindrome" does not do what it says.

Few politicians act as they speak. Few religious leaders practice what they preach.

The case recalls a rule my father invoked often: "Don't do as I do; do as I say." Dad (a palindrome) was a raging alcoholic.

My dad's rule fits the behaviors of politicians & religious "leaders" — mostly men, hence "fathers" (of our nation, of a Church) & often alcoholics, many also raging ones. Politicians & religious leaders do not act as they preach but exhort us to do what they say.

"O we like sheep" is part of a line of one of the choruses of Handel's "Messiah" & also a statement of what politicians & religious leaders design for us — our conduct, our experience. But in the Handel's Messiah Chorus, the full line is: "O we like sheep have gone astray." THAT proposition implies sheep do NOT follow orders or others' designs. So, WHAT ought be the implication of the fact that commonly politicians & religious leaders want us to be their sheep?

Though "palindrome" is not a palindrome, its PLURAL ("palindromes") is an anagram of "splendor am I" or "I am splendor." "I am splendor or splendor am I" is a sentence palindrome. In THAT (anagrammious/palindromeous) aspect, "palindromes" connotes many politicians' and religious leaders' self-perceptions. And that observation yields further reason to suspect the term "palindrome" was created by a politician or religious leader.

Now consider how most politicians & religious leaders ARE like SOME palindromes. Compare the sentence-palindrome "Blessed are they that believe that they are blessed." Most politicians & religious leaders believe they are blessed. How does their belief fulfill itself?

If they are blessed because they believe they are, then they must be capable of blessing (effectively). Only God can bless. So, every politician or religious leader must be God; and that proposition is quite what politicians & religious leaders believe; and that fact is demonstrated by the fact that such people's behavior is that of people who presume to be gods.

Next consider the true word-palindromes I put at this message's beginning: dad, did, eve, kook, mom, peep, pop, toot, wow.

The first three make the sentence: "dad did eve." If one reads "did" (fittingly here) as meaning "serviced" & if one recalls that God is "The Father" & "Eve" was the God-created first woman, one sees that the sentence tells us God screwed Eve over — since he made her suffer the ignominy & dire consequences of being the "cause" of "original sin."

The next palindrome — kook — labels well the God who screwed Eve over.

The next palindrome is what Eve became because God screwed her over: A mom.

The next is what Eve could not "make" when God screwed her over: a peep (because God would have scourged her for even such a meek protest).

The next — "pop" — is what Adam became because God screwed Eve over. Also, it is an alternative name of God-the-Father — pop, hence God-the-pop. Compare "Pope," a would-have-been palindrome, undone by a little "e, " which, being redundant, distinguishes the Pope from God. The Pope is God's mouthpiece, but, like a palindrome, neither he nor his name does what he says. Then, too, "pop" is what fetuses do when born naturally, as surely Abel (Eve's first kid) did (a palindrome): pop from the womb.

The penultimate palindrome — toot — is what God did to his horn when he screwed Eve over, and what Adam did when Eve bore the fruit of his seed, and what Cain did when he slew Abel, but what God did not allow Eve to do when she lured Adam, because, though Eve was a real "looker" & consummate seducer, God would not let her feel pride in her "work," since God forced the whole melodrama & Eve was just a man's rib.

The last palindrome — wow — is an exclamatory interjection that fits the whole Adam & Eve story but NOT the natures, propositional tendencies, or behaviors of religious leaders or politicians. Also "wow" is a slang noun meaning "an amazingly successful person or thing," which describes well the God who screwed over Eve.

Note that "wow" describes also religious leaders & politicians — successful ones. They were/are "amazingly successful" — "successful" being, by hypothesis, a fitting adjective, and "amazingly" being appropriate because they ought NOT have succeeded, but, AMAZINGLY, people let them succeed.

But do not leap to a seductive false deduction. NO palindrome IS a religious leader or politician. God is a mere pseudo-palindrome ("dog" spelled backwards). And religious leaders (oft an oxymoron) & politicians do not act as "palindrome" denotes — saying the same thing whether coming or going.

Writ by:

He is that thing that is he.

Who is that thing that is who?

Leonard [pseudo-palindrome of "dranoël" (meaning dragon-Christmas)]