Ambigrams and Me

So I was talking with my brother the other night and he is always telling me about some fascinating new thing his family has learned about. (Really! From facts on astronomy, to what a fly looks like under a microscope, to all sorts of things!) The particular new knowledge of this week was ambigrams. Perhaps you've heard of them? I hadn't, or at least, I'd forgotten if I ever had.

Basically, an ambigram is a word or phrase that can be read the same from any direction; forwards, backwards, or upside down. Or all three! (Sort of like a palindrome, i.e. noon, except this can be read upside down.)

Evidently there are people so incredibly good at writing them, that they have contests where people sit down and within a certain length of time, they write an entire paragraph in this form. Can you imagine?! I cannot. I struggle with getting my sentences all out correctly, let alone being able to read them backwards or upside down as well! Obviously, this sort of thing is for really intelligent people.

Anyway, the above picture is an example. I realize you can't turn your computer upside down, but if you notice, you can certainly read the phrase both ways. (And you also realize that you can no longer swim on Monday's. ;) Click over here if you'd like to create one yourself. (It's pretty basic just so you know.)

I was quite fascinated by this idea though. I mean, who even thinks up things like this? "You know, I think I'll see if I can't figure out a way to write this sentence so you can read it no matter how you're looking at it." Uh.....yeah.

Regardless! They range from the simple to the complicated. Because if you think about it, you have to add extra lines (or curlicues) to each letter in order to make them appear like another letter when read from a different direction. Here's what I mean using my name:

Interesting huh?

So! Have you heard of these?