21812

by Maki on January 20, 2012 at 8:58 am

Those who know me well know that I am geekily delighted by palindromes. I tend to have usernames like “Dr. Awkward” and “Lonelytylenol,” tag lines that read, “Draw, o coward!” and when I first moved to the NYC area, my zip code was 10801. Coincidentally. I’m not that crazy about palindromes to plan that sort of thing.

So when skeptic singer/songwriter/drummer/podcaster/impresario George Hrab was going to have a concert on February 18th, 2012—fully aware of what he was doing—I was pumped. When he asked if I could draw up a poster, I was all over it, and I already had ideas.

The final product was more minimalist than I would have liked and I’d definitely want to play around with far more elaborate card decorations in the future, but Geo and Ms. Information were thrilled, and I think the simple, classy, look works in this case. Which is great, because I’m really excited for this concert. It will be my first time seeing the Geologic Orchestra, my first time in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and hey, Phil Plait and a plethora of other amazing skeptics will be in attendance. So consider coming on down for what is guaranteed to be a fun show.

If you haven’t heard of George before, I highly highly recommend checking out his podcast. It’s a very well produced, fun variety hour, and I can’t say enough good things about George himself. Check it out. In the meantime, info below:

Buy Tickets! - Carboniferous buyers and above get a limited edition print of the poster signed by George, the band, and myself. See? All that space works in my favor now.

The Concert Site! - For updates, links and more

And now a Facebook page! - Let us know you’re coming!

See you there!

Oh, and I promise there will be real comics next week. In fact, I just finished a doozy that relates to yesterday’s post. Stay tuned!

Europe: The reason we use 2/18/12 is because of how we speak it, “February 18th, 2012″

└ Tags: 21812, Bethlehem, Geologic Orchestra, George Hrab, Ms. Information, Phil Plait

Anonymous

Every time I see MDY, a little part of me dies. YMD naming will sort chronologically in simple list form (which is why all of my personal files start with YMD dates – well, OK, YYYY-MM-DD, but you get the idea), and DMY kind of makes sense as it progresses from smaller to larger units. But MDY makes no sense at all, and only offers “We’ve always done it that way” as justification. (And that’s not even necessarily true – we often speak the date first and then the month. Look at “Remember, remember, the fifth of November…”)

With that in mind, I offer the following observation: the twenty-first of every month of this year (until September) will also be palindromatic, if stated DDMYY or YYMDD.
- http://sci-ence.org Maki
  
  Every time somebody complains about MDY, a unicorn files their taxes on the wrong day.
  
  As it is (most likely) just a convention of speech—we still say “November 5th” unless reciting that specific poem—it’s both unlikely to change to the “correct” form and likely to change in a thousand years when we start measuring time based on relativity or something.
  
  So let’s just let it go. Nobody in America complains that the English say “Half eight” and everybody is left wondering “7:30? 8:30? 4:00?” Ah crap. I just did and gave the Queen a pimple.
  - Anonymous
    
    Pish tosh! I hear (and use) “the Nth of month” frequently! I debated using the poem as an example because it’s really more of a special case, but I do think it’s common (if not predominant) usage.
    
    Besides which, how can you have the kind of interest in syntax or morphology indicated by your fascination with palindromes, yet brush off syntactical objections to date convention?
    
    And “let it go”? Is this your first day on teh intarwebs? Holy wars have been declared for less!
    
    …
    
    Dammit, I hate the limitations of typed text. I just read what I wrote and instead of being joking as intended, it sounds cranky and asshole-ish. Can we just take it as given that, were this conversation taking place in real life, this is the point where I’d buy another round? (Before resuming yelling about syntax?)
    - http://sci-ence.org Maki
      
      Haha! No worry, I didn’t take it that way at all.
      
      You’re right, I blame confirmation bias—reading the date in order to make it appear as a palindrome and discarding the format when it doesn’t fit
      
      You know I’m going to bring this up with George when I see him, now. I’m curious how much mail he gets about it!
    - Mono
      
      and while we’re at it we should say 5 November not fifth
      
      as in cinco de novembre
    - Monkey Choir
      
      Heh, it’s pretty hard to imagine taking offense to a comment that begins “pish tosh,” but, as you note, this is teh interwüehbz.
  - John
    
    I’m English and I’ve never said “Half Eight.” What’s it supposed to mean, anyway?
    
    UXO makes a good point, and he has the ISO on his side.
    - Krazykupo
      
      Half past eight. We say it a lot down the southern end of Blighty at least.
      - Stefan Meyer
        
        Funny. Half eight in German would translate to 7:30. (in some areas in Germany you could also say 1/3 quarter eight 7:15/7:45)
  - http://www.luckydogsoft.com/ Brian
    
    Isn’t that poem of English origin anyway, so it would make sense that it’s the 5th of november.
P Adrian Frazier

I should try to do this. I live in Bethlehem, and it looks like it will be fun.
Monkey Choir

“St. Pure Avalon on a clove volcano, no lava erupts.”

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