\t\t\t\tThis is something that goes on inside my head. I see words and drill down to their center\u00a0letter(s). The word\u2019s center may be perfect, imperfect, half-reversed, stubbornly without a central nervous system, or anything else I more or less arbitrarily decide to label it.<\/p>\n
Words with an even number of letters are the most inviting challenge. I find the middle two letters and rhythmically determine what letter(s) are alphabetically positioned evenly in between. The center of A and E, for example, is C. Other word games inhabit my brain. This one happens to be on my mind and once and for all I will send it to my hands.<\/p>\n
This game has inhabited my brain since grade school. The mental search for center letters is sung to various tunes from Bizet\u2019s \u201cCarmen\u201d, Beethoven\u2019s Opus 111 Piano Sonata, cadences borrowed from high school marching band, and others. Most times I get to the center of any word put before me but sometimes I just give up. I\u2019ve never discussed this out loud or typed this out until now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve imagined this game being taught in a grammarly fashion to youngsters in grade school. The centers of broadly separated letters such as A and V, or G and Y, might be memorized and recited by rote. A teacher would speak random letter combinations which the students would be expected to have memorized. Optimally their minds would be trained to instinctively know the center letters without taking the low road of straight memorization.<\/p>\n
Teacher: \u201cC, O.\u201d
\nClass: \u201cI.\u201d
\nTeacher: \u201cS, E.\u201d
\nClass: \u201cL, imperfect reversed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThese words are chosen from things that are on my desk or on my mind.<\/p>\n
KODACHROME – O
\n<\/strong>OBSTRUCTED CENTER OF KODACHROME IS EF.
\nFIRST 2 WORDS THAT START AND END WITH E\u2026F ARE ELF AND ERF.
\nPERFECT CENTERS OF ELF AND ERF ARE L AND R.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF L AND R IS O.
\nTHUS, THE PERFECT CENTER OF KODACHROME IS O.<\/p>\nMAGAZINE – C<\/strong>
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF MAGAZINE IS MN.
\nMAN AND MEN ARE THE FIRST 2 WORDS THAT START AND END WITH M\u2026N.
\nPERFECT CENTERS OF MAN AND MEN ARE A AND E.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF A AND E IS C.
\nTHUS THE PERFECT CENTER OF MAGAZINE IS C.<\/p>\nPUBLIC – G<\/strong>
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF PUBLIC IS BL.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF BL IS G.
\nTHUS THE PERFECT CENTER OF PUBLIC IS G.<\/p>\nREFLECTION – D, IMPERFECT REVERSED
\n<\/strong>OBSTRUCTED CENTER OF REFLECTION IS EC.
\nAS E AND C ARE IN REVERSE ORDER THE IMPERFECT CENTER IS D, REVERSED.<\/p>\nGIRLFRIEND – L<\/strong>
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF GIRLFRIEND IS FR.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF FR IS L.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF GIRLFRIEND IS L.<\/p>\nKEYBOARD – DIJ, PERFECT OBSTRUCTED
\n<\/strong>FIRST WORDS THAT START WITH H AND END WITH I ARE HADJI AND HAJI.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF HADJI IS D, OBSTRUCTED CENTER OF HAJI IS EF.
\nFIRST WORDS THAT START AND END WITH E\u2026F ARE ELF AND ERF.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF ELF AND ERF ARE L AND R.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF L AND R IS O.
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF D AND O IS IJ.
\nNO WORDS START WITH I AND END WITH J.
\nTHUS THE PERFECT CENTER OF HADJI JOINS THE OBSTRUCTED CENTER OF HAJI TO FORM DIJ.<\/p>\nMARIGOLD – H, PERFECT REVERSED<\/strong>
\nTHE CENTER OF I AND G IS H, REVERSED.
\nH REVERSED FORMS A PERFECT H.<\/p>\nHEADPHONES – L, IMPERFECT REVERSED<\/strong>
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF HEADPHONES IS PH.
\nIMPERFECT CENTER OF PH IS L, REVERSED.<\/p>\nROLODEX – O<\/strong>
\nPERFECT CENTER OF ROLODEX IS O.
\nSOME WOULD ARGUE THAT ITS POSITION BETWEEN L AND D MAKES IT PERFECT REVERSED, AS O REVERSED FORMS A PERFECT O.<\/p>\nMEMORIES – PQ, OBSTRUCTED, OR D, OR K IMPERFECT REVERSED, EXTENDED.
\n<\/strong>NO WORDS START WITH P AND END WITH Q, UNLESS THE ABBREVIATION P.D.Q. IS CONSIDERED, IN WHICH CASE D IS THE PERFECT CENTER.
\nAN EXTENDED SEARCH FOR THE CENTER OR MEMORIES WOULD CONSIDER THE SURROUNDING LETTERS M AND I. THE IMPERFECT REVERSED CENTER OF M AND I IS K IMPERFECT REVERSED, OR K IMPERFECT REVERSED EXTENDED.<\/p>\nCOSTCO – C<\/strong>
\nOBSTRUCTED CENTER OF COSTCO IS ST.
\nFIRST WORDS THAT START AND END WITH S\u2026T ARE SAT AND SET.
\nPERFECT CENTERS OF SAT AND SET ARE A AND E.
\nPERFECT CENTER OF A AND E IS C.
\nTHUS THE PERFECT CENTER OF COSTCO IS C.<\/p>\nCOFFEE – N, SEMI-PERFECT HALF-REVERSED
\n<\/strong>OBSTRUCTED CENTER IS FF.
\nFIRST WORDS THAT START AND END WITH F ARE FIEF AND FLUFF.
\nIMPERFECT REVERSED CENTER OF FIEF IS G, PERFECT CENTER OF FLUFF IS U.
\nAS G IS IMPERFECT REVERSED THE CENTER OF G AND U IS N, SEMI-PERFECT HALF-REVERSED.<\/p>\nHEADPHONES – L, IMPERFECT REVERSED<\/strong>
\nCENTER OF P AND H IS L, REVERSED.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is something that goes on inside my head. I see words and drill down to their center\u00a0letter(s). The word\u2019s center may be perfect, imperfect, half-reversed, stubbornly without a central nervous system, or anything else I more or less arbitrarily decide to label it. Words with an even number of letters are the most inviting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-181-2","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paumAn-Up","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsbj.com\/sorabji\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}