palindromic date

I don't normally want the p-a-l-i-n series of letters to show up in my life. But here they refer to something that reads the same forwards as backwards--a palindrome, such as "Madam, I'm Adam."

I just learned the word can refer to numbers, too. Jan 2 was one, 01/02/2010. Next year Nov. 2, 2011, will be one. Before one in the year 2001 there had been none since the year 1380.

And speaking of series of letters, this appeared in a word puzzle in England: what is HIJKLMNO? You'll never get it. It's water! Get it? The letters "H" to "O." H2O.