Thursday, 15 May 2008

Countdown........

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

3 has always been a number associated with mystery and magic: the Three Wise Men, The Holy Trinity, The Three Stooges, etc

And, of course, three threes is an even more powerful number, as Wm Blake Esq noted:

“When Klopstock England defied,
Uprose William Blake in his pride;
For old Nobodaddy aloft
Farted and belch'd and cough'd;
Then swore a great oath that made Heaven quake,
And call'd aloud to English Blake.
Blake was giving his body ease,
At Lambeth beneath the poplar trees.
From his seat then started he
And turn'd him round three times three.
The moon at that sight blush'd scarlet red,
The stars threw down their cups and fled,
And all the devils that were in hell,

Answer’d with a ninefold yell.
Klopstock felt the intripled turn,
And all his bowels began to churn,
And his bowels turn'd round three times three,
And lock'd in his soul with a ninefold key;
That from his body it ne’er could be parted
Till to the last trumpet it was farted.
Then again old Nobodaddy swore
He ne'er had seen such a thing before,
Since Noah was shut in the ark,
Since Eve first chose her hellfire spark,
Since 'twas the fashion to go naked,
Since the old Anything was created
And so feeling he beg’d him to turn again
And ease poor Klopstock’s ninefold pain.
From pity then he reden’d round
And the Spell removed unwound.
If Blake could do this when he rose up from a shite
What might he not do if he sat down to write?”

In the year 3, Wang Mang foiled a plot by his son Wang Yu, his brother-in-law Lu Kuan, and the Wei clan to oust him as regent. Wang Yu and Lu Kuan were both killed in the purge that followed.


(you may choose to bowdlerise this one, I suppose, O Col)

Col said...

Which pretty much goes to prove what I always thought about journalism: it's the very fine art of cut and paste.

Anonymous said...

Three, oh, it's the magic number,
Yeah it is, it's the magic number

Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity
You get three
It's the magic number

With the past and the present and the future
And faith and hope and charity
And the heart and the brain and the body
It'll give you three; it's a magic number,

It takes three legs to make a tripod
Or to make a table stand
And it takes three wheels to make a vehicle
And call it a tricycle
Every triangle has three corners
Every triangle has three sides
No more, no less
You don't have to guess
That is three, can't you see?
It's the magic number

A man and a woman had a little baby
Yes they did,
There were three in the family
That's the magic number

3 6 9
12 15 18
21 24 27
30

3 6 9
12 15 18
21 24 27
30

Now multiply backwards from 3 x 10

Oh, well 3 x 10 is?
30
And 3 x 9 is?
27
3 x 8 is?
24
3 x 7 is?
21
3 x 6 is 18
3 x 5 is 15
3 x 4 is 12
And 3 x 3 is 9
And 3 x 2 is 6
And 3 x 1 is 3, of course
Now dig the pattern once more
3 6 9
12 15 18

Oh! 3 x 10 is?
30
And 3 x 9 is?
27
3 x 8 is?
24
3 x 7 is?
21
3 x 6 is 18
3 x 5 is 15
3 x 4 is 12
And 3 x 3 is 9
And 3 x 2 is 6
And 3 x 1…
What is it?
3!
Yeah!

A man and a woman had a little baby
There were three in the family
And that's the magic number

Col said...

Will no-one rid me of these turbulent numerologists?