Big Frank has been recently made aware that this post is his 100th blogging message. So that number seemed to invite a quantitative comment. What Big Frank was thinking was that this number carried some significance and that called for something special. Then the thought came to him that this was just another number carrying no more signification than 49 or 82, or 24. Well, theoretically it’s just another number, but in fact it’s not just any old number. We invest some numbers with more significance than others: the 5s, the quarter markers (25, 50, 75), and the centuries (100, 200, 300), and the all of those numbers multiplied by 10, 100, 1000, etc. Those are the anniversaries that we mark in our birthdays: personal, institutional, national, etc. Those are happy numbers. We also have happy numbers that correspond to our desired weight, bank account balance, interest rate, wait times, waist line, cholesterol, blood pressure, restaurant bill, miles per gallon, temperature, etc. etc. And these last categories also have disappointing numbers that we count away from. However, the numbers that Big Frank thinks most obsesses are those connected with duration. In only 2, 5, 25 minutes, days, years I will acquire, be rid of, arrive at, figure out, pay off, or in some way satisfy some as desire. This counting takes place at regular intervals and is actually numbered off. The calculation is made, recalculated, counted out (often sotto voce), but like the calendars in old black and white films, in your mind the numerical milestones are counted forward in anticipation and counted backwards from the culmination of desire. It is not enough to have a desire – it needs to be placed within a quantitative sequence that one can then go in, from time to time, and walk around in taking steps – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; 4,000/5,000/6,000; January, February, March; Winter, Spring, Summer; 21nd, 23rd, 24th; 5:00 pm, 5:15 pm, 5:30 pm; 9th floor, 8th floor, 7th floor; Exit 87A, Exit 87B, Exit 91; and on and on. The clock never stop ticking; the centimeters; the degrees; the calendar pages turn; and the count no matter where you are, where you’ve been, or where you’re going – it never arrives at the end of the alphabet, nor the end of the calendar, nor the season that stops; no culminating point – none.
Friday, July 11, 2008
100 and counting
Big Frank has been recently made aware that this post is his 100th blogging message. So that number seemed to invite a quantitative comment. What Big Frank was thinking was that this number carried some significance and that called for something special. Then the thought came to him that this was just another number carrying no more signification than 49 or 82, or 24. Well, theoretically it’s just another number, but in fact it’s not just any old number. We invest some numbers with more significance than others: the 5s, the quarter markers (25, 50, 75), and the centuries (100, 200, 300), and the all of those numbers multiplied by 10, 100, 1000, etc. Those are the anniversaries that we mark in our birthdays: personal, institutional, national, etc. Those are happy numbers. We also have happy numbers that correspond to our desired weight, bank account balance, interest rate, wait times, waist line, cholesterol, blood pressure, restaurant bill, miles per gallon, temperature, etc. etc. And these last categories also have disappointing numbers that we count away from. However, the numbers that Big Frank thinks most obsesses are those connected with duration. In only 2, 5, 25 minutes, days, years I will acquire, be rid of, arrive at, figure out, pay off, or in some way satisfy some as desire. This counting takes place at regular intervals and is actually numbered off. The calculation is made, recalculated, counted out (often sotto voce), but like the calendars in old black and white films, in your mind the numerical milestones are counted forward in anticipation and counted backwards from the culmination of desire. It is not enough to have a desire – it needs to be placed within a quantitative sequence that one can then go in, from time to time, and walk around in taking steps – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; 4,000/5,000/6,000; January, February, March; Winter, Spring, Summer; 21nd, 23rd, 24th; 5:00 pm, 5:15 pm, 5:30 pm; 9th floor, 8th floor, 7th floor; Exit 87A, Exit 87B, Exit 91; and on and on. The clock never stop ticking; the centimeters; the degrees; the calendar pages turn; and the count no matter where you are, where you’ve been, or where you’re going – it never arrives at the end of the alphabet, nor the end of the calendar, nor the season that stops; no culminating point – none.
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