They have entries for numbers at Wikipedia. I've just learned that 86 is a happy number. Isn't that nice?
UPDATE! - If 86 is happy, then 69 must be freaking ECSTATIC!
UPDATE! AGAIN! - This just in: apparently 87 is moderately depressed, 43 is in a constant state of manic excitement, and if 86 saw its tax statement for this year, there's no way it would stay happy...
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Tim, your links stink, you fink!
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25 comments:
In some jurisdictions 69 is almost an illegal prime.
Dear Wikipedia, is there anything it cannot do?
When I discovered that Wikipedia had an entry on 7744, I went absolutely nuts and started typing in a long stream of numbers into the search box to see if it had an entry. Alas, it seems the representation of the numbers above the 1000 range is relatively sparse.
Ah, the simple pleasure of discovering that there are people in the world just like oneself! Although obviously there aren't too many of them...
My favourite part of each wikipedia article is the discussion page. Sometimes it's the only part I really read.
Sounds like a blog comments page - for pedants.
Wait, there's a fatal irony in that metaphor somewhere...
Say what you like, but for me, Wikipedia will never beat the complete edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica at my parents house.
I wish I had a complete edition of the EB! My mother is a retired librarian, so we would sometimes go into work with her during school holidays and much of that time would be spent reading encyclopedias (God, I sound like a nerd!).
But there are other equally enjoyable reference books. I'm extremely fond of Roget's Thesaurus*, because it makes you think about language and the relations between words in an interesting way. And I love Brewer's, of course- a great way to kill time. The nerdiest section of my library is all my folklore books (I've got quite a lot). I also read The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics for kicks.*
*I know it's safe to admit such things here.
There's a Brewers just down the road from where I live, just opposite a place that my flatmate tells me is much Fowler...
(Ba-doom-TISH!) Ha ha! Ehrm...
I don't know whether I could ever really concentrate on a book of poetics, just leaf through it and learn the information in dribs and drabs. I'm surprised that I'm able to finish books off at all, since I often tend to just leaf through books until something catches my eye. I honestly think I learnt whatever I do know about poetry purely through osmosis, and definitely not through any sustained process of studying or anything like that.
Great to hear you have a folklore collection. I'd love to get my hands on Walter Scott's translation of Grimm. The favourite in my collection (well, this is more mythology, but anyway) is Kevin Crossley-Holland's 'Norse Myths', along with the various Scandinavian sagas that I've amassed.
David Syber has a COMPLETE collection of The Arabian Nights at his bookshop that I am currently covetting. It costs about 80 dollars all up, and I'm going to buy it as soon as possible... (it's been there for several months now, so I'll be pissed off if I go into buy it on the weekend and find that some bastard has bought it in the meantime!)
Then, of course, there are ways to combine your reading pleasures, like 'Dictionaries of Folklore' or Ambrose Bierce's 'Devil's Dictionary', or a dictionary of mythical beasts compiled by Borges. I love that stuff!
Do any of those numbers have their own global society, 'eh?
Number 47 does.
http://www.47.net/47society/
Sorry, too lazy to hyperlink.
I'm such a terrible nerd that that was actually funny to me. I (hiding behind hand) sometimes casually browse Fowler's as well.
These things are for leafing through rather than reading cover to cover, I think. I don't think my education has been particularly sustained or systematic either, but that's because I have no self-discipline!
I haven't really got into the Scandinavian sagas, but I know I very much have it in me to do so, given the time. Have you read any of The Earthly Paradise?
a COMPLETE collection of The Arabian Nights at his bookshop that I am currently covetting
Translator? The most fun is the Burton one, of course, although not for scholarly reasons.
Caz, that is a wonderful link. I want to join that society.
Karen, not so much, no. I have never really got around to reading much by William Morris, except some thingy he did about the World's End, or something, which I didn't get into. Oh, and segments from 'Earthly Paradise' in Nortons.
Ah, I'm not sure about the Arabian Nights translation, but it's rare enough for me not to be too picky!
I have just joined the 47 society!
(Well, their mailing list anyway.)
OMG!
Even I hadn't joined up yet Timmy.
Damn you!
Now I'll have to.
Sheesh, the things I do because of other wayward bloggers.
Excellent! I was disappointed that they don't seem to be very active.
This weekend, I think I might catch the 74 tram and see what magical journey of discovery it takes me on! (Oh, all right, according to that link it will just take me to Burwood, but let's not get too prosaic)
And then, I shall mail them the results!
The Well at the World's End? I suppose I enjoyed it more because I know so much about Morris- but there's a lot of interesting stuff about sexuality there, in any case, if you're of the psychoanalytic or "over-analysing" bent. Some of the monthly lyrics from TEP are just the most heart-breakingly beautiful things. But I'm an enthusiast! Anyway, he uses the sagas a lot (TEP is half Medieval and half classical stories) and there's his Icelandic journal, so that's why I mentioned him.
I was just curious about the edition you'd get for $80, that's all. The translator does make a big difference. I'm guessing it's the Husain Haddawy translation, which is very recent. I don't think $80 would be especially cheap for that one, which is quite easy to get. If it's another edition/version, it might be a bargain.
No, it's an older version, pre-Penguin. Quite possibly Burton. I'm not aware how many translations there are. I shall have to read more Morris, because he sounds like he would intrigue and fascinate me, I just haven't read enough yet.
If it's Burton, buy it, but make sure the notes are included- that is, buy it if you want- I'm not ordering you to or anything! You'll enjoy the pseudo-archaic language and the sheer offensiveness of the prurient notes. It's more likely to be Lane.
Morris was heavily involved in the Socialist movement. This delights me, but it may not delight you- but, God, what a great man!
Mmm, but socialism probably meant something rather different then. I suppose he was totally down with all that communality stuff, but I'm not sure if German economic theorists would have featured heavily with him (he was before Marx, right?)
Who knows what he would have made of 20th century manifestations of socialism? There's a sense in which beyond a certain historical point, socialism, conservatism and liberalism have similar historical roots. In fact, you could argue that the paternal-style socialism of modern government would have been disliked by Morris!
Morris
did read Marx, although Engels, quite unfairly, viewed him as a sort of useful fool. News from Nowhere, the most widely read of Morris' writings now, is quite interesting on the communality question. It's not a bad ideal to have, as far as ideals go... In any case, how can you not love someone who produces something as glorious as this? Morris' socialism is all about sensuality.
As for paternalism, Morris very much comes out of Ruskin (noblesse oblige!), although obviously he's a shift away as well. Someone did a survey of the favourite books of the first British Labour government and Unto this Last (Ruskin) was right up there next to Shakespeare and Milton- so there are some curious intellectual/historical roots for you!
I forgot to say- if this copy of the AN is the Grub Street translation, you can get that very easily in Oxford World Classics too, I think.
Socialism does have a strong representation in the arts, and I've often wondered whether this is to do with the inherent appeal of grand theories, the way it deals with large social and economic patterns, and the inherently literary quality of certain socialist concepts. Even Paddy McGuinness acknowledges the appeal of Marx's literary style, but I've always been suspicious of aphorisms like 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'. In reality, a slave labourer could quite happily live by that maxim, though it sounds nice.
A free market doesn't have such a direct literary appeal, being inherently chaotic, though obviously Adam Smith has always had his devotees. Then again, you'd think a few 20th century artistic movements, with their love of chaos and randomness, would have taken them to heart, though I don't think they ever did. An interesting writer with his foot in both camps is Michael Moorcock; most of his books (his genre, sort of, is fantasy/surrealism).
I suppose there's always Captain Marryat...
Oh God, this could be a very long conversation indeed, but I just can't justify procrastinating enough to get into it- I'm sorry! If I start on this, it's just going to be streams and streams... But, just quickly, arts embracing chaos- Futurism. On the left of things, Walter Benjamin is very interesting on this score, but I would have to practically post a dissertation to even begin to get into that!
Terry Eagleton's The Ideology of the Aesthetic is my favourite book around this subject. I pretty much share Eagleton's assessment of postmodernism, incidentally. But I am very left-wing. I suppose you've figured that out already... I am really, really left-wing.
You absolutely have to get yourself a copy of Tristram Shandy straight away. You'll just love it to bits. I can endorse it no more highly than by saying that I love it as much as I love Vanity Fair. It's so much your book (judging from your online manifestation), that it's really quite extraordinary that you haven't found each other yet.
Procrastination ends now.
Henry Fielding all the way!
Yes, but Sterne when you can't quite manage all the way!
(You'll have to read it to get that).
Speaking of Sterne, now would be an opportune time to mention the other Tim who I think named his blog after the original Sterne. He's a freaking funny writer, and I've been meaning to put a post up about his quarterly-literary-publication project.
For this morning I set my alarm to 6:47, and when I warmed some milk up for my coffee I set the microwave to 47 seconds.
It's also a full moon.
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