{"id":3054,"date":"2013-03-11T19:16:13","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T23:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2013-03-11T19:16:13","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T23:16:13","slug":"symmys-ymmy-ymmy-symmys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/2013\/03\/symmys-ymmy-ymmy-symmys\/","title":{"rendered":"Symmys: Ymmy, Ymmy Symmys"},"content":{"rendered":"

I send you, dear readers, the press release from Mark Saltveit
\n(palindromist, editor of The Palindromist,<\/i> and stand-up comic) about yesterday’s award ceremonies, complete with amusing references to me – and I send my congratulations to Aric Maddux and the other winners!<\/p>\n

\n

Palindromes Win at SymmyS Awards<\/h3>\n

Shock as First-time Writer Takes Grand Prize With Serious Message On Pill Addiction; Discovered Via Tweet<\/h5>\n

PORTLAND, OR \u2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 11, 2013.<\/p>\n

Aric Maddux of Indianapolis, Indiana won the Grand Prize for Best Palindrome at
\nthe 2012 SymmyS Awards Sunday night with the first palindrome he ever wrote.
\nHis winning entry, a rare \u201cword-unit palindrome,\u201d was a dark warning about the
\ndangers of prescription pill addiction:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou swallow pills for anxious days and nights, and days, anxious for pills, swallow you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddux, a computer technician and poet, tweeted his debut effort to Professor Nick Montfort of M.I.T.,
\nwho took fourth place in Will Shortz\u2019 World Palindrome Championship last year. Montfort, recognizing
\nMaddux\u2019 talent, nominated the beginner for the SymmyS \u2013 and then lost to him in the finals.
\nAny Ymmy Award (the singular of SymmyS) was awarded in four categories — Short, Long, Poetic, and
\nWord-Unit Palindromes \u2013 in addition to the Grand Prize for Best Overall Palindrome.<\/p>\n

Maddux spoiled an otherwise dominating night for Australian Martin Clear, who won the Long
\nPalindrome YmmY outright, tied for first in Poetry, and placed second in both Short and Long
\nPalindromes. He wrote fully 10 of the 40 total finalist entries, spread among all four categories. Clear\u2019s
\nshort palindrome, which came within half a point of winning that division, dipped into pop culture:<\/p>\n

\u201cI made Rihanna hirsute, familiar, frail: I’m a fetus Rihanna hired, am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

Popular author Jon Agee (\u201cGo Hang A Salami, I\u2019m a Lasagna Hog\u201d) won first and third place in Short
\nPalindromes, scoring with both \u201cA Slightly Violent To-Do List\u201d and this \u201cIgloo Dialogue:\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019An igloo costs a lot, Ed!\u2019
\n\u2018Amen. One made to last! So cool, Gina!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Statistics professor John Connett, of the University of Minnesota, took both 3rd and 2nd place in the
\nWord-Unit category with an unprintable entry and with this epigram:<\/p>\n

Fishing for excuses? No need. You need no excuses for fishing.<\/p>\n

A word-unit palindrome is one where entire words reverse, instead of individual letters. The motto of
\nthe Three Musketeers — \u201cOne for all, and all for one!\u201d \u2013 is a famous example. \u201cSurprisingly,\u201d Saltveit
\nnoted, \u201cthe fiercest competition was among the word-unit palindromes. Before this competition, they
\ndid not get a lot of attention. Nick Montfort has worked hard to popularize them, and it ended up
\ncosting him an Ymmy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Symmys are produced by The Palindromist Magazine, the world\u2019s leading palindrome periodical.
\nHundreds of entries were assembled from direct submissions to the magazine as well as a worldwide
\nsearch for new talent. Competitors hailed from Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.
\n\u201cWe created these awards to showcase the great new palindromes being written every year,\u201d explained
\nto Palindromist Editor Mark Saltveit. \u201cMany people think all the good palindromes were written years
\nago. These great new works show how wrong that is. And word-unit palindromes are a good way for a
\nbeginner to get involved, as Aric showed tonight.\u201c<\/p>\n

The night\u2019s biggest controversy involved the disqualification of an entry. A little-known article in a 1984
\nissue of Word Ways magazine was found to have a palindrome very similar to a Short Palindrome
\ncontender by the little-known Anne Tenna.
\n\u201cOttoman Empire: We Rip Men!\u201d (a motto)
\nTenna\u2019s entry was leading the category and in second place for the grand prize at the time of its
\ndisqualification. \u201cNo one is suggesting plagiarism,\u201d noted Palindromist Editor Mark Saltveit. \u201cThe
\nearlier palindrome was very obscure, and parallel invention is not uncommon. But we hold the highest
\nstandards for originality, and this entry had to be withdrawn.\u201d Tenna nonetheless tied for first place in
\nthe Poetry category, and had four nominations total.<\/p>\n

The ceremony, held at Portland, Oregon\u2019s Funhouse Art and Beer Cabaret, featured Los Angeles
\ncomedian Dax Jordan, star of the upcoming show DaxTV on the MavTV network, and tap dancing
\nsaxophonist Michael \u201cShoehorn\u201d Conley. Both added original palindromes, written for the occasion, to
\ntheir performances.<\/p>\n

The panel of judges was a murderer\u2019s row of wordplay and geek celebrities, including puzzle master Will
\nShortz, \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic, comedian\/author Demetri Martin, comedian Jackie Kashian, musician John
\nFlansburgh, journalists Jack Rosenthal and Ben Zimmer, and palindromists Tim Van Ert and Jeff Grant.<\/p>\n

——————————————————————<\/p>\n

Full details are available on the website of The Palindromist Magazine, including:
\nBiographies and photos of the contestants<\/a>; Biographies and photos of the judges;<\/a> A full list of winners<\/a>;
\nand A full list of the nominated palindromes<\/a> (10 in each of four categories).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I send you, dear readers, the press release from Mark Saltveit (palindromist, editor of The Palindromist, and stand-up comic) about yesterday’s award ceremonies, complete with amusing references to me – and I send my congratulations to Aric Maddux and the other winners! Palindromes Win at SymmyS Awards Shock as First-time Writer Takes Grand Prize With … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Symmys: Ymmy, Ymmy Symmys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-palindromes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3059,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickm.com\/post\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}