Gnidnats Noitavo!

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Well, I had a fruitful and eventful day, but the highlight has to be that I was given a standing ovation! I was quite honored in the moment, but after sitting down I felt even more honored because, well, I don’t believe I’ve ever had a standing ovation before.

Details:

Back in December of 2010, I delivered my first speech in Toastmaster, which is called the “Ice Breaker Speech.” I decided to break the ice with my new club by telling them about four unique events in my life. Among other events, I gave a brief overview of my appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Ever since then, members of the club have joked with me about talking backwards, and they even asked me to demonstrate it one day. I considered giving a speech about being on Oprah’s show, but I just wasn’t that excited about it.

Then, about four months ago, while brainstorming ideas for themes, someone (not me) suggested having a backwards meeting. I guess other clubs have done this and it’s supposed to be fun. The meeting begins by being adjourned. Then members get up and give the timer and grammar report. Then the evaluators (who haven’t even heard the speeches!) get up and evaluate the speakers. Then the speakers deliver their speeches. Then the grammarian introduces the word of the day. Then the President goes over any important items. Then the meeting is called to order.

Yeah, it’s silly. I wasn’t even crazy about the idea, ’cause I thought it would just be a big laugh-fest with no constructive feedback or criticism to learn from.

Still, I figured that, in keeping with the theme, I would talk about talking backwards.

As it was to be my eighth speech, I was working on “Getting comfortable with visual aids.”

So here’s what I did:

First, I called up a Power Point slide in which words appeared on the screen one-by-one. Here’s what gradually appeared:

Hello fellow Toastmasters!
I am speaking backwards right now. Don’t get me wrong, I still started with that first word – “hello,” but I said it backwards. So it sounded like “olleh.” Then I said “fellow” backwards, then “Toastmasters.” I know it’s confusing. It’s pointless, too. That is why I almost never do it. But it seemed appropriate today. Okay, I will stop now.

As the words appeared, I spoke them backwards. The members, many of whom have joined since my first speech and had no idea I could talk backwards, were very quiet and amazed. When I was done reading the slide, they broke into applause. Wow!

Then I told them how I first became interested in reversing words, by telling a tale my grandfather once told me of his middle name Otto. I had the name “Otto” written on a transparency and I rotated it 360 degrees to show people how the name was the same from every angle. I then flipped the transparency over, showing that it still said “Otto.”

I said that this caused me to become fascinated with finding other words that, when reversed, remained the same word. I told them that back when I was a kid, I did not know such lists were in books, so I began looking at all words, trying to see which ones fit the bill. These words are called palindromes, I explained, and I moved onto the next slide that displayed a list of about two dozen palindromes.

“There are three things I learned when trying to find palindromes,” I said. The first is: there’s not very many of them. The second is: though some words are not palindromes, they are semordnilaps, and I then showed a slide listing about ten words, such as “diaper,” “lager,” and “straw.” After defining “semordnilap,” I revealed the corresponding list that showed the words became “repaid,” “regal,” and “warts,” respectively. I pointed out that “semordnilap,” when reversed, makes the word “palindromes,” meaning that “semordnilap” is, itself, a semordnilap, which makes it an autonym – everyone got a kick out of this super-duper language nerd-dom.

I told them that if they wish to learn more, they should check out Richard Lederer’s book Crazy English, which even features an interview with a fictitious doctor (Doctor Rotcod, appropriately) who speaks in only palindromic phrases. I then explained what a palindromic phrase is, and displayed a slide listing a few, such as:

Madam, I’m Adam

Rise to vote, sir

Do geese see God?

I next told them that another person interested in such phrasing is Weird Al, and I played a clip from his music video “Bob:”

Getting back to my own fascination, I listed off the third thing I learned: that after searching through the language looking for palindromes, I eventually came to the realization that I knew how to say pretty much every word backwards, whether or not it made any sense at all. I said that even though I think it’s a silly talent, classmates, co-workers, and friends have found it hilarious. So, one day, I thought maybe the whole country would find it hilarious. I therefore wrote to several talk show hosts and, less than two months later, I found myself on stage with one of them.

As I began to play this clip, one lady in the audience said, “No way!”

I held up my signed letter from Oprah and told everyone that I tell my wife we should be grateful that life has never been so bad that we’ve had to sell this letter for groceries. (More laughter ensued.) I concluded by saying that, in retrospect, I should have known that Oprah would have been the one most interested, since her production company is named Harpo. I then showed a slide with the word “Harpo” on it which then reversed to show it was “Oprah” backwards.

A final slide gradually revealed words that thanked them for listening which, as at the start, I recited backwards.

Applause…and then one of the club members stood and said, “standing ovation!” Everyone followed suit.

I was humbled and honored.

My evaluator (who happens to be the club’s former president) wrote in my book, “Best speech we have had!”

And, to top it off, when the grammarian got up at the end of the meeting to announce the word of the day, she said it was “Palindrome,” a word she selected for its appropriateness to the occasion. No one else used the word, but I used it seven times.

Maybe it’s not such a useless talent.