Comments on: Cheaper By The Dozen http://indessed.com/roscivs/2007/03/21/cheaper-by-the-dozen/ as if you could kill time without injuring eternity Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:23:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Jacob Lewis http://indessed.com/roscivs/2007/03/21/cheaper-by-the-dozen/#comment-23 Jacob Lewis Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:44:45 +0000 http://indessed.com/roscivs/2007/03/21/cheaper-by-the-dozen/#comment-23 Ah-ha! Nice to see the old "Pre-decimal pounds were easier to navigate" argument. I always liked base-12 money--it made things simple. Of course, people got silly about it and introduced *cough*Queen Vic*cough* the Florin and other decimal-esque pieces. And the whole thing was kludged together anyway, since the silver penny was the everyday piece of money in England for centuries, and it's only arbitrary that 240 of them got cut out of a pound of silver. Your average craftworker, who for some reason has not been paid in kind, would see a lot of half-pennies and fourth-pennies, many of which were cut directly from the large coin, and consequently weren't quite a fourth of a 240th of silver. Eh... I'm nattering on. Enjoy base-12, son. It's a dying breed. I'm reminded also of the scene in the Illuminatus Trilogy, wherein Hagabard Celine points out that if we'd all had six fingers on our hands, there'd be a law of sixes. Clever, clever people. Ah-ha! Nice to see the old “Pre-decimal pounds were easier to navigate” argument. I always liked base-12 money–it made things simple.

Of course, people got silly about it and introduced *cough*Queen Vic*cough* the Florin and other decimal-esque pieces. And the whole thing was kludged together anyway, since the silver penny was the everyday piece of money in England for centuries, and it’s only arbitrary that 240 of them got cut out of a pound of silver. Your average craftworker, who for some reason has not been paid in kind, would see a lot of half-pennies and fourth-pennies, many of which were cut directly from the large coin, and consequently weren’t quite a fourth of a 240th of silver.

Eh… I’m nattering on. Enjoy base-12, son. It’s a dying breed.

I’m reminded also of the scene in the Illuminatus Trilogy, wherein Hagabard Celine points out that if we’d all had six fingers on our hands, there’d be a law of sixes. Clever, clever people.

]]> By: concocted glimpse » Triskaidekaphilia and Pretty Numbers http://indessed.com/roscivs/2007/03/21/cheaper-by-the-dozen/#comment-269 concocted glimpse » Triskaidekaphilia and Pretty Numbers Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:33:34 +0000 http://indessed.com/roscivs/2007/03/21/cheaper-by-the-dozen/#comment-269 [...] I’m fond of “13″. It’s odd, it’s prime, and when it’s on a calendar it’s alluringly spooky. In Venezuela, it is Tuesday the 13th that’s ominous. It’s just outside the environs of numeric normalcy, harking back to our base 12 days. [...] […] I’m fond of “13″. It’s odd, it’s prime, and when it’s on a calendar it’s alluringly spooky. In Venezuela, it is Tuesday the 13th that’s ominous. It’s just outside the environs of numeric normalcy, harking back to our base 12 days. […]

]]>