By Chris Cosci

Palindromes. Those clever little words, phrases, and numbers that read the same backwards and forwards. And here we are in 2002, a palindrome in itself. Of course, the fact that 2002 is a palindrome is probably not a huge revelation to you. In fact, you probably find it rather uninteresting.

Well, you obviously have no idea about the pure excitement this is causing in the palindromic community. I would also venture to guess you were unaware that such a community existed.

Author Jon Agee is one of the biggest names in the palindromic community. Agee is the author of several collections of original palindromes and he is getting ready to party like it's 1991. And since the next palindrome year doesn't happen until 2112, this is his big chance. You may ask yourself, how does a palindrome enthusiast party? Well, he throws a big bash with a band that plays songs with melodies and lyrics that read the same forward and backwards. Seriously.

Agee is not the only member of the palindrome fan club. Mark Saltveit is editor of the Palindromist magazine and has just published a 2002 datebook filled with palindromes. The datebook contains classic palindromes like "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama!" and historic palindromic tidbits such as the former Yreka Bakery in Yreka, CA.

Saltviet admits that palindromes can be silly, but encourages people to play with words and try to create thought-provoking palindromes - palindromes with meaning. That would probably explain the following palindrome sent to Agee: "Do geese see God?" This goes to show that palindromes are not just interesting wordplay, but they can also stimulate a fascinating discussion on the introduction of theology into the complex world of zoology.

Within this crazy world of palindromes exists an elite society of people who are devoted exclusively to numbers. They develop formulas and equations to derive as many palindromes as possible. This fascination with numbers led to what could be the most useless discovery of our time. Although, it's also oddly intriguing.

It started with a thought. Pick a number, reverse its digits and add the resulting number to the original number. If you repeat this process, would every number eventually become a palindrome? For example, take 67. Reversing its digits, you get 76. Add 76 to 67, and you get 143. Repeat. Take 143, add it to 341, and you get 484 - a palindrome!

Sounds exciting, right? Well, here's the catch. These numbers people (who obviously have way too much time on their hands) have proved that this is the case for every number less than 10,000. Except for 196. With 196, one man kept adding numbers - BY HAND - until he came up with a number with 70,298 digits. He found no palindrome.

In August, 1987, a man by the name of John Walker wrote a computer program to perform the calculations. The computer ran the program for nearly three years (yes, three years), producing a number with a million digits. Still, no palindrome was found.

Then, in 1995, another man, Tim Irvin, found himself intrigued by this same problem. Using a spare supercomputer that just happened to be lying around at the aircraft simulation company he worked for, he continued Walker's program. The advanced technology took only two months to produce a number with TWO million digits. Still, no success.

I'll admit, the math geek in me finds this very interesting. Will we ever know the answer? Is there an answer? We may never know. Maybe the geese have the answer.