The 2020 SymmyS Awards: More Palindromes about COVID and Food

On the auspicious palindromic date of 1/20/2021, the winners of the annual SymmyS Awards for best new palindromes have been announced by Mark Saltveit of the Palindromist Magazine. We’re happy to present the announcement as a guest post from Mark. (And for more palindrome-related news, see our September post, “Amen, I Call a Cinema! ‘Tenet’ and ‘The Palindromists.’”)

The 2020 SymmyS Awards for best new palindromes were dominated by themes of food and the COVID pandemic this year, as two newer palindromists won big.

First-timer Malaki Stahl of Seattle won two of the five categories, while British author Anthony Etherin of Shropshire and San Francisco cartoonist Jon Agee continued their multi-year domination of the Poetry and Visual Palindrome categories, respectively. Etherin took the Grand Prize for best overall palindrome with his epic recipe for “Ragu.”

Stahl had the year’s best Short Palindrome, titled “FACT”:

Tonsil is soft, fossil is not.

Reigning World Palindrome Champion Martin Clear took silver with his lyrical “Yule,” which also was selected as the second place Grand Prize winner.

Golden, ruby-red: nice cindery burned log.

Last year’s Long Palindrome winner, Matt Bernal placed third with “Shibboless”:

No lisp, eh? Say “Ash, epsilon.”

Honorable mention goes to Stahl’s “Symptomatic,” arguably the funniest palindrome of the year:

If I weep, I pee wi-fi.

Stahl repeated his victory in the Mid-length Palindrome category, with a pandemic-inspired dialogue:

“Risk same cafe? Sure, talk later.”
“Use face mask, sir.”

Bernal followed him once again with “Unimpressive”:

A deed all lewd? Well, la-dee-da!

Popular author-illustrator Jon Agee bagged the bronze with his poignant “Diabetic Neuropathy”:

Too fat, soldier Bob Reid lost a foot.

Honorable mention went to the mysterious Anne Tenna, who captured a tough year in the aptly titled “2020”:

Moody, Tim? A lackluster few, we fret, sulk. Calamity! Doom!

Judges gorged on food palindromes in the Long Palindromes category, as Etherin and Clear served up reversible feasts. Etherin won the category — and the Grand Prize for best overall palindrome — with a 32-word recipe, How To Make A Ragù:

Ragù:
Shallot.
A tuna.
Deft salt (light) or beer, up a root.
A motto.
Herb most sombre.
Hot tomato or a purée.
Broth, gilt, last fed a nut.
A toll.
Ah, sugar!

Clear, in response, asked the eternal question, Pie or Roe? (and tied for 3rd place in the Grand Prize competition).

To prefer pie or roe, I peruse both on air, a fat sardonic item so cosmetic. I nod.
“Rastafarian?”
“Oh, to be sure.”
“Pie or roe?”
“I prefer pot.”

Third place was a “Film Review” by the Utah Orchestra’s principal bassoonist Lori Wike, who apparently saw one of the few movies released in theaters last year, a film that was itself palindromic.

TENET: a faded art emits aria. Dim mood set a retinal one’s reverse. Nolan iterates doom mid-air as time traded a fate net.

Continuing the gustatory theme, Win Emmons of Waco, Texas won Honorable Mention with his truly “Eclectic Eating”:

Note, I do Total, eggs, monster, geese, egrets (no MSG), gelato to diet on.

Etherin notched the top two spots in Poetry, winning with the topical verse “Facemask:”

Put it on.
Knot it up.

Walks a man,
in a mask….

Law:
Put it on.
Knot it up.

He also took second with a Petrarchan sonnet titled “War Ends War,” edging Martin Clear’s ode to “Ella’s Salad.”

Cartoonist Jon Agee drew all three winners in the Visual Palindromes category, with two collaborations sandwiching his own “Kong.”

1. “Evil Alice” by Peter Sabra and Jon Agee (which also tied for 3rd place in the Grand Prize category).

2. “Kong” by Jon Agee

3. “Race Carrot” by Win Emmons and Jon Agee

The SymmyS Awards are given every year on Palindrome Day (1/20/2021 this year in the correct American system) to honor the best new, original palindromes. They have been awarded every year since 2012 and will be released on February 20, 2022 which is only two days early in the archaic British system.

The judges for this year’s awards include: comedians Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin, classics professor Michael Fontaine, wordplay authors Jeff Grant and Ove Michaelsen, fiction writer Margaret Malone, puzzlemaster Will Shortz, language commentator Ben Zimmer, and professor of computing Johan Jeuring.

A complete list of winners follows. For more information, contact editor Mark Saltveit of the Palindromist Magazine at palindromistmag@gmail.com. The Palindromist Magazine is published irregularly, but very well; for details, visit http://www.realchange.org/pal

2020 SymmyS Winners

Short Palindromes

1. FACT by Malaki Stahl “Tonsil is soft, fossil is not.”

2. Yule by Martin Clear “Golden, ruby-red: nice cindery burned log.”

3. Shibboless by Matt Bernal “No lisp, eh? Say ‘Ash, epsilon.’ “

Mid-length Palindromes

1. Front Line Barista by Malaki Stahl

“Risk same cafe? Sure, talk later.”
“Use face mask sir.”

2. Unimpressive by Matt Bernal

A deed all lewd? Well, la-dee-da!

3. Diabetic neuropathy by Jon Agee

Too fat, soldier Bob Reid lost a foot.

Long Palindromes

1. How To Make A Ragù (Recipe) by Anthony Etherin

Ragù:
Shallot.
A tuna.
Deft salt (light) or beer, up a root.
A motto.
Herb most sombre.
Hot tomato or a purée.
Broth, gilt, last fed a nut.
A toll.
Ah, sugar!

2. Pie or Roe? By Martin Clear

To prefer pie or roe, I peruse both on air, a fat sardonic item so cosmetic. I nod.
“Rastafarian?”
“Oh, to be sure.”
“Pie or roe?”
“I prefer pot.”

3. Film Review by Lori Wike

TENET: a faded art emits aria. Dim mood set a retinal one’s reverse. Nolan iterates doom mid-air as time traded a fate net.

Poetry

1. Facemask by Anthony Etherin

Put it on.
Knot it up.

Walks a man,
in a mask….

Law:
Put it on.
Knot it up.

2. War Ends War (Petrarchan Sonnet) by Anthony Etherin

Tao may be now a sign I knell afar. A wasted act in killing is to die.
To newer awe, be sure now, onward eye.
Defer old loss — I kill it. So, I mar….
It’s one to me, revolt: a devil’s tar.
Erupt it. Fight life. Rot. Dirt up, I lie —
vast sacredness, raw rats, a noose I tie
(of redder foe, I tie so, on a star).
War’s sender casts a veil I, putrid, tore.
Filth! Gift it. Pure rats lived at love remote.
No stir, am I — O, still I kiss old lore.
Fed eye, draw now. One ruse beware, we note.
I dot, sign ill, I knit cadets a war —
A fallen king? I saw one, by a moat….

3. Ella’s Salad by Martin Clear

“Salad!” Ella called A lasting issue dabs All eons — a gem to go dining I sat up to get a bed’s tabs.
A sneer got a mote cut Televised, it tips secret tureens Sneer, utter cesspit tides I’ve lettuce, tomato, greens. As bats debate got put A sign-in I do got me gas No, Ella’s bade us sign it “Salad!” Ella called — alas.

Visual Palindromes [see images above]

1. “Evil Alice” by Peter Sabra and Jon Agee

2. “Kong” by Jon Agee

3. “Race Carrot” by Win Emmons and Jon Agee