SGR 1900+14 had a brief episode of exceedingly rapid spindown immediately
following its 1998 Aug. 27 superburst. On a timescale of hours, it increased
its period by a part in 10^4. The corresponding Pdot ~ 10^{-8} is orders of
magnitude higher than the typical quiescent rate of Pdot ~ 6x10^{-11}.Comment: Submitted to Mem.S.A.It. for inclusion in the proceedings of 'Soft
Gamma Repeaters: The Rome 2001 Mini-Workshop'. (6 pages, requires
memsait.sty, included