extremely cool site if you like things like this...

January 1, 2002 2:31 AM

extremely cool site if you like things like this... palindromes, anagrams, spoonerisms, pangrams, oxymora, mnemonics, etymology,
posted by sadie01221975 (18 comments total)

Pas pome, same pop, ape mops, sea pomp.
posted by holloway at 2:50 AM on January 1, 2002

Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog!
posted by Dinzie at 3:53 AM on January 1, 2002

"Use your crust, lad."
posted by bjgeiger at 4:14 AM on January 1, 2002

I've been playing Scrabble lately at games.com, but it's a bit depressing, since it slowly dawned on me that 90% of the people there are using online cheats, like logophilia.com, or any of a number of online anagram servers. ::sigh::
posted by RavinDave at 5:28 AM on January 1, 2002

This site is light on content, heavy on ads, and of dubious quality. I wouldn't advise using any of it as any kind of academic resource, particularly because of the common etymological errors. You can do better.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:46 AM on January 1, 2002

My fascination with etymology began with my reading Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe." He compared the Old English/Saxon words still used in the barnyard to the Old French/Norman of the dining room; an example: chicken vs. poultry. The era's social stratification was made much more clear to me.
posted by Carol Anne at 7:27 AM on January 1, 2002

one things thats always bugged me...whoever invented the word palindrome, why didn't they make the word itself a palindrome? wouldn't that make it easier to remember what the word meant?
posted by mcsweetie at 8:23 AM on January 1, 2002

Palindrome literally means in Greek "running back (again)" (palin, "back, again" + dromos, "running").

Pehaps some Mefier could devise a synonym which would be a palindrome.
posted by Carol Anne at 9:06 AM on January 1, 2002

Mcsweetie, that's like the joke, why isn't the word Monosyllabic shorter?
posted by Doug at 9:28 AM on January 1, 2002

Or the old Steven Wright question, "Why doesn't onomatopoeia sound like anything." A nice list of animal related onomatopoeiac words used from languages around the world, and the sounds that they are copying is at Sounds of the world's animals.
posted by bragadocchio at 10:19 AM on January 1, 2002

Gee, braggadacio, I always wanted to write a kid's book on the theme of what do animals say and finally I see the definitive site. I used to always quiz immigrant co-workers on the topic since I found out cats said 'nyaa ' in Japanese--although until I saw this spelling, I would have followed the entry for Greek: "niaou."

I remember one guy from the Phillipines telling me, "Cats? I don't do cats but here's my water buffalo..." There is no way to transcribe what followed but I'd like to assume it was a standard expression.
posted by y2karl at 12:07 PM on January 1, 2002

non-self-describing
posted by moss at 1:22 PM on January 1, 2002

satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
posted by complex at 1:55 PM on January 1, 2002

But what's another word for thesaurus?
posted by Doug at 2:52 PM on January 1, 2002

Osama Palindrome Contest: The Winners (text-only Slate).
posted by Carol Anne at 5:01 PM on January 1, 2002

y2karl...that would be a great choice for a kids' book. I'm guessing that young children probably do well with words that are pronounced like an actual sound. Also, choosing animals as the ones who make the sounds gives you a lot of possibilities for illustrations.

A friend's fiancee is from Poland, and we were at a party last Friday night, where she was playing with the host's cats. Maybe it was the accent, but cats in Poland have to sound a lot different than in the US from the sounds she was making... Or maybe it was just my American ears. The cats seemed to understand her just fine.
posted by bragadocchio at 10:49 PM on January 1, 2002

2002: the palindrome year; only one per average lifespan, please.
posted by Mack Twain at 12:39 AM on January 2, 2002

last one; how come there's only one monopolies commission?
posted by kev23f at 1:12 AM on January 2, 2002