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Happy Palindrome Day


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16 hours ago, wjgco said:

...Having spent many happy weeks in Finland...

I spent 3 winter months in Helsinki in the 1970’s.

The most depressing place I have ever been.
The sun rose at 11 am and set at 1 pm.
During the 22 hours of darkness everyone was drunk and looking for a fight.


I worked in the X-Ray department of a hospital and met a doctor from Chicago.
I asked him why he had come to Finland.


“To study stab wounds of course. Helsinki is the stab capital of the world.”

Charlie.

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This year is 4718 to the Chinese, 1442 in Islamic years, while Jews count 5781 years since the world was created.      And those cultures have diferent months too, so a palindrome in a convention held by less than half the world is an irrelevant happenstance.      

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5 hours ago, Charlie D said:

I spent 3 winter months in Helsinki in the 1970’s.

The most depressing place I have ever been.
The sun rose at 11 am and set at 1 pm.
During the 22 hours of darkness everyone was drunk and looking for a fight.


I worked in the X-Ray department of a hospital and met a doctor from Chicago.
I asked him why he had come to Finland.


“To study stab wounds of course. Helsinki is the stab capital of the world.”

Charlie.

I used to attend meetings there occasionally, and have to agree it's pretty miserable. The first time I was there we asked our Finnish host what the locals did for amusement - he said they catch the ferry to Tallinn! When asked if there were any historic sites to see he told us about a bridge that has some bullet holes in it dating from WW2. The bars all advertise a "Happy Hour", which I felt should be renamed the "Slightly Less Miserable Hour".

To be fair, there is the Russian cathedral (which was closed every time I was there), and the boat trip to Suomenlinnen is worthwhile if the weather is good and the harbour isn't frozen.

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On 2/13/2021 at 3:21 PM, stillp said:

I used to attend meetings there occasionally, and have to agree it's pretty miserable. The first time I was there we asked our Finnish host what the locals did for amusement - he said they catch the ferry to Tallinn! When asked if there were any historic sites to see he told us about a bridge that has some bullet holes in it dating from WW2. The bars all advertise a "Happy Hour", which I felt should be renamed the "Slightly Less Miserable Hour".

To be fair, there is the Russian cathedral (which was closed every time I was there), and the boat trip to Suomenlinnen is worthwhile if the weather is good and the harbour isn't frozen.

I spent 3 months in Denmark as a student.     Two memories of what we did for amusement:

A/ living in a Student Hall.   Then - no idea about now - where in the UK methylated spirit would be on sale, for cleaning etc, in Denmark it was ethanol, the usual non-poisonous, drinkable alcohol, but mixed with dye and a bitter compound as in our meths, to make it undrinkable.   But where there are chemistry and engineering students, and a punitive tax on the usual forms of drinkable alcohol,  there is ingenuity.    They set up filtering stacks in the basement, that removed the dye and bitterness, and delivered 99% pure ethanol!    More, they could buy 'flavour kits' for any spirit you might wish, so that "Whisky", "Brandy" and "Gin" were readily available for a lot less than they cost from a shop.

B/ the Ferry to Malmo.    No more, replaced by the Oresund Bridge, but then constantly shuttling like a Channel ferry, you could buy a ticket, walk aboard, and spend all day and night carousing in the bar at duty free prices.     Only problem was that you had to stay sober enough to get off at the Swedish end, and show your ID.     I forgot my passport one night, and was rescued from Immigration Authority custody by my friends, who persuaded them that I was not a deserter from the US army!

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22 minutes ago, Harbottle said:

I bet it doesn’t work in French?. 

 

 

No, but french tops it with Georges Perec's 500 word Le Grand Palidrome. https://inchiostroepatatine.forumattivo.com/t1049-le-grand-palindrome-de-georges-perec

starts with image.png.96bceaba29fd4d4b203c7d923849aade.png

ends withimage.png.b3a2c64fe0cfbf4de9daa92f654f4583.png

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