12/12/12: The last time in your life, probably

12/12 is December 12, everywhere in the world. No doubt, no conflict.

12-12-12.

Today is the last time for 88 years there will be a date as perfect as this one. At 12:12 today, I plan to stop and acknowledge it. If my daughter is alive on 01/01/2101, she’ll practically be 97. I’d be almost 148, so I’m not counting on that.

What is it about repeating number dates that’s so cool? As I’ve indicated previously, consecutive numbers are interesting, but they don’t mean the same thing worldwide. Next year, for instance, there will be 11/12/13; in the United States, that’ll be November 12. But in the civilized world (or the civilised world, if thou prefereth), it’ll be the 11th of December.

12/12 is December 12, everywhere in the world. No doubt, no conflict. Unified front, the world in agreement, when the world seems incapable of agreeing on much; and it’ll be nearly another century before we’ll all be in sync. If we survive that long. Isn’t that Mayan calendar doomsday thing supposed to be this month? Not that I believe it.

Lots of folks appreciate this specific date. This is Time for the Golden Age. And it’s a memorable date to get married.

The 12-12-12 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief from 7:30 pm (Eastern)-midnight.

(Happy birthday, GC.)

Repeating numbers

There will be other repeated phenomena, such as 2/2/22, 3/3/33, which will save us from a total desert of no repeated digits.

Tomorrow is 11/11/11. I’m as fascinated as anyone by this fact. A bunch of people are getting married on that date. Is it that they consider it particularly lucky, or is it that they just want to make sure they don’t forget their anniversaries? Or maybe it’s that it’s a peculiar phenomenon that takes place 12 times at the beginning of the century, then not at all for 88 years, that they wish to embrace.

The movie being released on that date with that name is being directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV); to say that I’ll never see it is a gross underexaggeration.

The repeated number phenomenon is much more interesting to me than the sequential system – 09/10/11, e.g. It’s because the latter is not universal. In the United States, that’d be September 10, but in most of the rest of the world, it’s October 9.

Not that I wouldn’t use the sequential if it made sense. My officemate Amelia was pregnant and due on 8 October. So I picked 09 (day)/10 (month)/11 (year) at 12:13 pm. Charlie was born on 9 October 2011, at 12:51 p.m., and I won the office pool. Amelia’s happy because he was born on Jackson Browne’s birthday.

There will be other repeated phenomena, such as 2/2/22, 3/3/33, which will save us from a total desert of no repeated digits.

Let’s look back at the previous repeating digits this century:
01/01/01, a Monday – the beginning of the 21st century, and the third millennium as many needed to point out. We learn that many people cannot spell the word millennium, which has 2 Ns, not 1.
02/02/02, a Saturday – Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, heir to the Dutch throne, marries Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in Amsterdam.
03/03/03, a Monday – “third day of the third month of the third year of the third millennium. That’s an awful lot of threes,” as noted here.
04/04/04, a Sunday – According to the Hartford (CT) House of Prayer, “This date is strategic. God raises up prophets to point the direction.”
05/05/05, a Thursday – The Canadian House of Assembly celebrates “the victory that Canadian troops helped make in World War II.”
06/06/06, a Tuesday – A number of sites express concern over occult happenings. Also, If Your Child Is Born on 06-06-06; Christian Parenting Alert!
07/07/07, a Saturday – Conversely, the Magical Qualities of the Number 7 led to perhaps the biggest wedding day ever.
08/08/08, a Friday – The Beijing Summer Olympics began on this date because 8 is lucky in Chinese culture.
09/09/09, a Wednesday – The Beatles’ mono and stereo remasters are released as well as the Beatles on Rock Band.
10/10/10, a Sunday – Yet another significant day.
11/11/11 will be a Friday, of course, and 12/12/12 will be on a Wednesday.

A Perfect Ten

What will YOU be doing (or what were you doing) on 10/10/10 at 10:10?


Twelve times a century, indeed, the first 12 years in the century, there will be a day when the day, month, and year all line up, then nothing for the following 88 years. But 10 is the only round number, and round numbers seem to have a certain panache in the culture.

Maybe it’s because we have fingers and ten toes, which (eventually) led us to use the decimal system, thanks to the number zero.

Maybe that’s why we have the 10 Commandments, formerly 15, according to Mel Brooks.


There are other numeric patterns related to dates, but they are imperfect, such as 01/02/03. The problem is that some places recognize the month/day/year, such as the United States, while most CIVILIZED people prefer the smallest to largest logic of day/month/year

David Letterman came up with a Top Ten list, not a Top 12 or Top 9. So tell me: what will YOU be doing (or what were you doing) on 10/10/10 at 10:10? I will be in rehearsal for our church choir.

 

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