this happened to me

last time i was traveling for a while. i'm starting to become overly distracted by the mechanics of language, of roots real or imagined*, and variations on the theme. the folks i've met here have given me a lot of material. i've taken to running into internet cafes to look up hawaiian slang (blake), gaelic spelling (niamh), and dutch regional variations (wouter). i've learned a lot of interesting tidbits, have been left with increasing number of questions (why o why o why does gaelic have so many vowel sounds spelled entirely with consonants?), and have become unable to communicate. sigh.

reading isn't even fun anymore. books have become like blueprints, and i focus only on the details. i'll read a whole book through and write down a bunch of words with funny roots, or things i can't translate into spanish, and forget the entire plot (menos mal, with the last few).

last time i was in this mood i started obsessively anagramming and writing palindromes. funny thing-- i checked myspace the other day for the first time in ages and found a message from a death-metal lover who wrote: "dear jana, i am glad you liked my palindrome so much you used it on your page! i am very flattered. i have written lots more if you would like to use them."

i was grumpy. english language palindromes are a finite set that increases very slowly with the creation of new words (ha. imagine using "serial monogamy" or "flash mob" in a palindrome.) you start in the middle, you work with words that don't have impossible combinations in the center... a palindrome artist should not accuse others of plagiarism because they, too, discovered that evil backwards is live.

in words, drown i.

i'll probably have to pay him royalties now.






*is "ruminate" connected to "ruminant"? is ruminating really chewing something over like a cow chewing its cud? the answer is yes, the question spurred by the hundreds of droop-eared, jowly cows that do seem to be philosophizing quietly.