Thursday, December 2, 2021

Another palindromic date

...but only for some of you.

If people where you are write the date in dd/mm/yyyy format, then today--December 2, 2021-- is just another day, 02/12/2021.

But if people where you are write the date in mm/dd/yyyy format, then December 2, 2021 is not just another day. It is a palindrome: 12/02/2021.

A palindrome, if you don't know, reads the same backward as it does forward, like "Able was I ere I saw Elba" and "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama."

I trust you will celebrate or refrain from celebrating accordingly. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200USD, and do not cast aspersions, none whatsoever, at those who write the date differently from the way you do. They are, after all, human beings. They have feelings. If you prick them, do they not bleed? If you tickle them, do they not laugh? If you poison them, do they not die?

Of course they do.

9 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. However, Bob, I do hope you are not planning to tell us this again in 2022, 2023, 2031 and regularly through every decade to the 29th February 2092 leap year and into the next century. You would not have many followers left.

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    2. Tasker, you needn/t worry about any palindrome pointing-out proclivities) of mine as I am a member of the right-thinking "month firster" tribe, not the wrong-thinking "day firster" tribe. The latter are considered a strange breed to the former, who cannot imagine how they react upon hearing, for example, "9-11". We do our somber reflections in September, whilst they (you) do theirs (yours) in November. How very strange, indeed, which only goes to prove that East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

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  2. My noisemakers are at full volume as I dance around the room.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would like to see us agree and all use the same pattern. But that's far too simple.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Red, it will never happen. Both sides are stubborn and set in their ways. Plus there's the cautionary tale of the French Republican Calendar to remember, when they tried to change the names of the months as follows (but fortunately for us all, failed):

      Autumn:

      Vendémiaire
      Brumaire
      Frimaire

      Winter:

      Nivôse
      Pluviôse
      Ventôse

      Spring:

      Germinal
      Floréal
      Prairial

      Summer:

      Messidor
      Thermidor
      Fructidor

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  4. I've also just read, that if you put yyyymmdd (as a database user might) then 20211202 in some fonts is an ambigram - it looks the same upside down.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...