June 1, 2026
Word nerds in absolute reverse
Palindromes by Eric Harshbarger
A wordplay wizard drops a tiny palindrome, and the comments instantly lose it
TLDR: Eric Harshbarger posted a short palindrome on his long-running wordplay site, reminding everyone that reading backward can still break brains. The comments quickly became the main event, mixing awe, jokes, Scrabble-fueled mythmaking, and complaints that the rating system wouldn’t let fans show their love.
A humble little palindrome — “Sit-in? I'd net tendinitis.” — should have been a quiet showcase for word nerd artistry. Instead, the real fireworks exploded in the comments, where readers treated Eric Harshbarger’s palindrome page like a live comedy club, a fan forum, and a bug report desk all at once. Harshbarger, who says he’s been crafting these backward-and-forward phrases for years, posted a 20-character brain teaser with no center letter, and the crowd’s reaction was basically: this man’s mind is terrifying.
The strongest vibe? Equal parts admiration and disbelief. One commenter called another of Harshbarger’s creations their favorite, only to reveal they got a CGI error trying to rate it — and suddenly a tiny side-drama was born, with multiple people complaining that even their attempts to hand out 5 stars were being rejected. So yes, the palindrome impressed them, but the rating button apparently said not today.
Then came the jokes. Readers started tossing out absurd favorites like “so... Catnip in tacos?” and “Start it! Rats!... race car stops”, turning the thread into a mini meme factory. And just when the room was fully convinced Harshbarger might be some kind of language mutant, another commenter dropped the reveal that he’s also a serious Scrabble player. The final blow? Someone quoted one of his monster math palindromes and another user simply responded: “Jesus Christ, that’s insane.” Honestly, that sums up the entire mood perfectly.
Key Points
- •The page features Eric Harshbarger’s palindrome “Sit-in? I'd net tendinitis.”
- •The palindrome is listed as having 20 letters and numbers, excluding punctuation, and no pivot letter because its length is even.
- •The entry is identified as Reference #00049 and is marked as not yet rated by anyone.
- •The FAQ defines palindromes as sequences that read the same forward and backward when considering only letters and numbers, with punctuation and spacing allowed to vary.
- •Eric Harshbarger says he has been fascinated by wordplay throughout his life and has actively created palindromes since about 2008.