I was working on the word LOVE in terms of its letters’ rank, and I discovered:
L is the 12th letter (15th from the end)
O is the 15th letter (12th from the end)
V is the 22nd letter (5th from the end)
E is the 5th letter (22nd from the end)
There are 10 spots forward from one consonant (L) to the other (V)
There are 10 spots backwards from one vowel (O) to the other (E)
What is the significance of all of this? Is there some sort of numerological synchronicity to the very word LOVE?
I dunno.
And why do I even KNOW this stuff? Well, I was going to put together a compilation album for some blogger exchange last year and thought I’d disguise the subject matter by putting in the same rank letter from the other direction, but what I ended up with was OLEV, pretty obvious what it was supposed to be.
(Whereas ROGER, e.g., becomes ILTVI, not quite so obvious, but actually pronounceable.)
To paraphrase Holland, Dozier, and Holland, love makes me write foolish things.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Oh, the title: LOVE BY THE NUMBERS.
(And you thought I was going to write something mushy about how much I love my wife and daughter and mother and sisters and nieces and friends…)
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Given this analysis of the day and this hot trend, and despite these lovely cards, it is this song that is my favorite on this day.
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According to today’s New York Times, “The Kiss of Life” by Joshua Foer: The Germans are also said to have coined the inexplicable phrase “A kiss without a beard is like an egg without salt.”
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Happy birthday, Anne!
