NOV 10, a brief saga (classic palindromes): Leigh Mercer's palindrome workshop

INTRODUCTION

Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was credited with the iconic palindrome, A man, a plan, a canal — Panama. Mercer, an isolated British eccentric who worked at low-level jobs with frequent turnover, occasionally communicated with journals and contest organizers about wordplay and mathematical puzzles. After his death, notebooks filled with unique palindromes were discovered.
This early workshop conducted by Mercer, during which the iconic canal palindrome is almost invented, is a fictitious event, but with the exception of the first, all the italicized phrases in the 'workshop' session are legitimate palindromes (indicated on the slides by green font) .

Authors' Note: 

Ipanema: (pronounced ee-pah-NAY-muh in Portuguese): trendy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, known for its marvellous beach and for its bossa nova music

 In the author's blogosphere, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 15 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three or more stanzas in limerick form, with other examples including "Rotten Spuds" and "Celerity and Celery".

 In many instances, these poems have constituted a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. Please note that publication of this poem at OEDILF.com is on hold as its keyword "Mercer" is beyond the current alphabetic range of their lexicographic undertaking. 

 There are now over 40 of these alphabetically compliant bits of doggerel featured at OEDILF in Giorgio's "Author's Showcase". The OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly since January 2020. Additional good news is that these longer limericks can be easily sung using commonly known tunes Click HERE to sing along with Leigh's Workshop".

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (December 2022), proceed to 'Hemianopsia'. 

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (October 2022), back up to 'Metabolic Delirium'.

 To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.

2020
2021
2022
2023.