Word play has surely been around since language began. One suspects it may even have been a prime motivation in the very first framing of language. Language as a wholesale joke? Don't underestimate the possibility. Word juggling, tossing words around, can assume an almost infinite variety of forms. Riddles and puns are apparently as old as language itself. The invention of writing and alphabets then opened up more possibilities that I classify as letter juggling, Reversible words and palindromes like Napoleon's lament, "Able was I ere I say Elba," were now possible and, unsurprisingly, sprang into being. Humor is seemingly as much a human characteristic as language; they form an inseparable horse and carriage that "go together." So read and enjoy this collection, a celebration of our humanity.
