Day #378 Internet Integrity?

Bees always tell the truth as they understand it. If there’s a good nectar source southwest of the hive, that’s the direction they advertise to their hive mates through their waggle dances, which I’ve talked about in a post last November. They wouldn’t dream of sending their bee friends off on a wasted trip.

Some people, though, send friends in the wrong direction deliberately, and the internet has made this habit much easier, both for the perpetrators and for the innocent forwarder, who doesn't stop to check facts. Here’s the reply I wrote to an email that you’ve probably already seen—the one that says that this October has a highly unusual, so-called "Moneybags" pattern of days. Nonsense!

“I hate to be the Grinch about this,” I wrote, and continued:

but I do wish people would stop forwarding astounding-sounding emails that have no basis in fact whatsoever. I’ll agree that the last two birth year digits plus one’s current age will always add up to 111. Nothing magical about that. But I’m appalled that anyone would think the 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays, and 5 Mondays event occurs only once every 823 years.

In ANY month with 31 days, whatever days the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd fall on, will always have 5 weeks of those days that month. If the first of the month happens to fall on a Saturday, then the 5 days will occur Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

In fact, if January 1^st falls on a Saturday, then there will TWO months that year with the “Moneybags Pattern”—January and October. If January 1^st is a Saturday in a leap year, then the 2^nd Moneybag month will be in July.

There is always at least one and never more than two of these “moneybag” months every year, with the following exception. There is one yearly pattern that contains NO “moneybags.”

If January 1^st falls on a Tuesday, and the year is not a leap year, then there will be no such pattern. The five most recent examples of this pattern were 1957, 1963, 1974, 1985, 1991, 2002. The next one coming up will be 2013.

This means that in the last 40 years, there have been 34 that fall into this “moneybag” pattern.

So, if you’re looking for an excuse for prosperity, and you believe the calendar holds the key to it, you are blessed indeed to have so many “moneybag years” at your disposal.

Anyone with a perpetual calendar and a little patience can figure this out.

            --Fran

p.s. The abundance in your life is not determined by how many times you forward ANY email. Feel free to break those e-chains!

p.s. #2 – Blessed are those who forward and reply via blind copy, for they shall preserve the integrity of the internet. (Is that an oxymoron?)

 

BEEattitude for Day # 378:

       Blessed are those who deal honestly, for they shall eventually find that the cards have been stacked in their favor.