AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: palindromes aplenty.

RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward, another looking backward.

AA: And from Janus we get January, and from that we get the idea to rerun "The Ballad of Palindrome" each New Year.

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RS: It features a skit that spoofs a cowboy show on television in the 1950s called "Paladin." Here now is the group Riders in the Sky joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western.


Riders in the Sky
SOUND: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western"

RS: That's Riders in the Sky from their 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label.

AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.