Category Archives: Through the Calendar

Even the palindromes are helping us celebrate Canada’s 150^th.

Huh?

Let’s start with some examples of palindromes, which are words that read the same forwards and backwards:

• Kayak
• Madam
• Noon
• The aforementioned “huh”

Similarly, a palindromic phrase or sentence reads – except for word breaks – the same forwards and backwards:

• Some of these make sense – A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.
• Some maybe not so much – Never odd or even.

Palindromic numbers are, of course, also the same fore and aft, a concept that applies regardless of the meaning of the digits:

• 22
• 141
• 567,765

Good feng shui, too.

Great feng shui!

Palindromic dates are tricky to achieve, because they have three elements, and to agree on, because they depend on the format you use:

• If you write your dates as m-dd-yyyy, then today – July 10, 2017 – is palindromic (7102017) but not tomorrow (7112017).
• But if you write your dates as m-dd-yy, then you can enjoy palindromic dates from today (71017) to July 19^th, 2017 (71917).

I have friends who use yyyy-mm-dd to align with the international standard based on computer time, where you can just keep specifying time to the right as long as you please (hours, minutes, seconds, and so on). I see no palindromic dates in this format for the foreseeable future.

In my former professional life I was focused on avoiding confusion, so I usually used formats with three letters for the month and four digits for the year:

• dd-mmm-yyyy for certainty in proposal text (To clearly signal, “No, we didn’t miss a digit on the day.”)
• yyyy-mmm-dd for quick comprehension of the schedule when a list of tasks extended across a calendar year-end

My father once told me that D-Day was scheduled for June 6 to avoid any confusion between the Allies on different date formats: It was 6-6, no matter what order you used.  True?  Dunno.

Not wanting to exhibit a foolish consistency, I’m good to set aside my usual practice where it seems worthwhile, and this is one such occasion.

So . . . may we have the drum roll, please . . .

Welcome to this year’s 10-day stretch of palindromic dates,
— 71017 to 71917 —
occurring in the same month as our national holiday,
no doubt as one of the first celebrations of Canada’s 151^st year.

Read more here about palindromic dates.