Seemingly, “The longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the onomatopoeic tattarrattat, coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922)”.

This is wildly unsurprising – remember the sound of crashing waves? – but pours us into a fizz of celebration that:

1.  It is Groundhog Day: the middle of Winter.
2. The date is a delicious palindrome: 02.02.2020
3. Just wait til two minutes past Eight this evening when      it’ll be … yes you’ve guessed it … 20.02 on 02.02.2020
4. Yabadabadoooodabadabay.

Such simple pleasures make me smile.

Note: this afternoon in London, the temperature will reach 13° centigrade / 55.4° Fahrenheit. Punxsutawney Phil wouldn’t bother to get out of bed in such swelterage, shadow or no shadow surely?

Image © Oxford World’s Classics cover to Ulysses