Maddenation
Contest
Patrick and I were having one of those rambling conversations today where we touched on everything, but each kept returning to our “themes for the day” independent redundancies for him, and universal distrust for me. Whenever I “discovered” something, Patrick would point out that somebody else probably discovered it independently—not that that diminished the originality of my discovery. And whenever Patrick mentioned some particularly egregious unfairness, I would point out that that’s what happens with everything—it eventually gets abused for some selfish purpose.
Along the way, I mentioned that Al Sharpton is running for president, and Patrick thought I was just making that up. No, I said, Al is now the eighth Democratic candidate. I also mentioned that, when there were only 7 candidates, political pundits were calling them the seven dwarfs. Patrick (naturally) pointed out that many people must have independently thought of calling them that. I said that there are only a limited number of good options available for any given number. (e.g. “the trinity” for 3, “the 4 Tops,” etc.) So we decided on a contest to pick the “best” characterizations for numbers between 2 and 10. I later suggested that there may be some good opportunities outside this range that we might want to take advantage of. So really, it’s kind of unlimited. If you want to add negative and imaginary numbers, that’s OK too. Just be ready to defend your choices in the face of merciless criticism. I will put my answers in the “read more” section of this entry.
[This isn’t finished yet, so bear with me if you happen to peak early.] OK, now I’m still not finished, but decided to abandon the effort.
2 tweedle dum and tweedle dee
3 blind mice
4 winds
5 easy pieces
6 pack
7 magnificent 7?
8 dazed and weak (apologies to the Beatles “Eight Days a Week.”
9 ladies dancing
10 pin (heads)
12 angry men
Comments
Patrick • 03/01/03 • 12:38 AM:I’ve decided to just go ahead and post my ideas here. If you’re also going to post here, please don’t look at my ideas, so you won’t be influenced and thus ruin the independent redundancy experiment. I have not looked at Dad’s yet.
Close your eyes, because here they are (may have good or bad connotations, depending on your view of the political candidates):
2: twin towers, two french hens
3: trinity, three blind mice, three wise men
4: four horsemen of the apocalypse
5: Jackson five, five alive
6: sick six, six geese a-laying
7: seven dwarfs
8: eight is enough
9: revolution number nine, nine ladies dancing
10: force ten, ten lords a-leaping
That was harder than I thought it would be. Perhaps given more time. Not all the “Twelve Days of Christmas” gifts would work, I don’t think. Also, I couldn’t come up with any good imaginary numbers (nor could I conceive of an imaginary number of politicians vying for a position). Ah well. Let’s see what Dad put. Let’s see if anyone else from the family competes. Come on!
David • 03/01/03 • 7:56 PM:Oops. I couldn’t help myself - I read both Dad’s and Patrick’s before reading the top of Pat’s comment saying not too. Oh well, I had already thought of two or three.
2: legit to quit
4: 4 leaf clover
5: the Fab 5
7: 7 Up
8: section 8
9: cloud 9
9: the whole 9 yards
Pat was right. This is not so easy. Peace to all.
Dan • 03/03/03 • 5:07 PM:2: of us
3: three’s company, three’s a crowd, is the magic number
4: -letter word
5: alive
6: pence, none the richer
7: swans a swimming
8: is great
9: number 9, number 9
10: tenth degree (is that right?)
that’s what i got.
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