Moody Amphitheater
Remembering Robert Burns
RECEIVED Mon., June 7, 2004
Dear Mr. Editor,
It hailed on Memorial Day this year. On an Austin afternoon when the temperature reached 100 degrees, ice actually fell from the sky. At the time I thought that it might have been an omen of some import, but it was not until now that I discovered why: Robert Burns had died.
Louis Black detailed Robert's public accomplishments ["Page Two," June 4], but I never worked with him; to me he was just a good friend, and I will miss him. He was literate and witty (Robert always maintained that he had a brother named Rug Burns) and he possessed one of the sharpest minds I knew. Let me give you one example.
I will never forget a conversation that I had with Robert back in 1991 about palindromes. Palindromes are, as you know, words or phrases that are identical when spelled backward, like "dad" or "level" or "gateman's nametag." I mentioned the longest palindrome that I knew ("A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!") and remarked to Robert that, at 21 letters long, it would be difficult to come up with a longer one. He then gave me a six-line poem that he had recently written. It is in free verse and is a palindrome of 73 letters, quite possibly the longest palindrome in the English language.
This is Robert Burns' palindromic poem:
Sure, vote.
Go there, gnaw.
A rat race!
We fill a minimal life.
We cart a raw anger, eh?
To get over ... us.
It hailed on Memorial Day this year. On an Austin afternoon when the temperature reached 100 degrees, ice actually fell from the sky. At the time I thought that it might have been an omen of some import, but it was not until now that I discovered why: Robert Burns had died.
Louis Black detailed Robert's public accomplishments ["Page Two," June 4], but I never worked with him; to me he was just a good friend, and I will miss him. He was literate and witty (Robert always maintained that he had a brother named Rug Burns) and he possessed one of the sharpest minds I knew. Let me give you one example.
I will never forget a conversation that I had with Robert back in 1991 about palindromes. Palindromes are, as you know, words or phrases that are identical when spelled backward, like "dad" or "level" or "gateman's nametag." I mentioned the longest palindrome that I knew ("A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!") and remarked to Robert that, at 21 letters long, it would be difficult to come up with a longer one. He then gave me a six-line poem that he had recently written. It is in free verse and is a palindrome of 73 letters, quite possibly the longest palindrome in the English language.
This is Robert Burns' palindromic poem:
Sure, vote.
Go there, gnaw.
A rat race!
We fill a minimal life.
We cart a raw anger, eh?
To get over ... us.
Your Pal,
Artly Snuff
Artly Snuff