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Clean Your Office!

(No Telling What You May Find!)

I found some old notes, in Peter's handwriting, which I will try to scan and get online someday, but for now I will simply transpose to text and post here.

On a piece of scratch paper with the pre-printed words: "Address Service Requested" at the top, and "IMPORTANT 20" at the bottom, Peter wrote:
"Law Firm: Fleer, Flaunt, Flout, Flinch, & Claquish"

The next scratch paper may not be Peter's, because it is not recognizably in his script. But I know it came from him and it is my belief it was his:
"Bush is the Lie of the Land!!"
"Truth is the Burning Bush!!"
"The Truth will set us FREE!!"

The next is again Peter's normal handwriting and it says:

"An idea for a movie: a phalanx of jackbooted thugs, all with Hitler mustaches, Nazi-salutes a picture of W, chanting 'Seig-Heil Bush!' Background: a Union Bank banner."

The next is some math scribbles, apparently some simple geometry, algebra and I think it is a proof wherein he could "prove" that a 90-deg angle was greater than 90 degrees. Did anyone ever see him do that one? How about the trisection of a given angle?

The next is an email with the date May 07, 2004 in which Peter wrote me to explain how he knew what day of the week I was born on. Since it exists only on paper, I will reproduce it here:

Hi Dobe--

  Well you asked me about my "instant" perpetual calendar.   How I got this "recipe" was, I was about 10 years old, and I looked in a dictionary under perpetual calendar, and here is what I gleaned:

  OK, suppose the date is MM/DD/CCYY.
1) take 1/4 of YY and add that to YY (discard fractions)
2) add the century number : 1800: 2, 1900: 0, 2000: 6, 2100: 4, 2200: 2, 2300: 0, etc.
3) add the date of the month
4) add the month number:
    for regular years: 144-025-036-146
    for leap years: 034-025-036-146
    bearing in mind that a certury year is only a leap year if it's divisible by 400...)
5) divide by 7 and the remainder is the day of the week:
  Sunday = 1, Monday = 2, etc.
  All this is much simplified by throwing out multiples of seven at every step!

  Examples:
  Pop 3/17/1912
    1/4 of 12 is 3, add to 12 is 15, mod 7 is 1
    add 17 to 1 is 18, mod 7 is 4
    century # is 0, month # is 4, add to 4 is 8
    8 mod 7 is 1, so George was born on Sunday.

  Mother: 1/27/1908
    1/4 of 08 is 2, add to 08 is 10, mod 7 is 3
    add 27 to 3 is 30, mod 7 is 2
    century # is 0, month # is 0, add to 2 is 2
    2 mod 7 is 2, so Helen was born on Monday.

  Peter: 11/11/1939
    1/4 of 39 is 9, add to 39 is 48, mod 7 is -1
    add 11 to -1 is 10, mod 7 is 3

This email may have gone on, but there is only the one page printed and kept.

I had watched Peter work through this in his head (about the day-of-the-week of my birthday), a few days before.

He did this feat in a few seconds. It blew me away.




	TheOwnersManual Dobe Doinat's Owner's Manual Home Get Email Updates X Zachary Wright's Blog Admin Password Remember Me 51623 Curiosities served Share on Facebook				2007-05-05 12:23 PM Peter's Notes from May, 2004 Found Previous Entry :: Next Entry Read/Post Comments (0) Clean Your Office! (No Telling What You May Find!) I found some old notes, in Peter's handwriting, which I will try to scan and get online someday, but for now I will simply transpose to text and post here. On a piece of scratch paper with the pre-printed words: "Address Service Requested" at the top, and "IMPORTANT 20" at the bottom, Peter wrote: "Law Firm: Fleer, Flaunt, Flout, Flinch, & Claquish" The next scratch paper may not be Peter's, because it is not recognizably in his script. But I know it came from him and it is my belief it was his: "Bush is the Lie of the Land!!" "Truth is the Burning Bush!!" "The Truth will set us FREE!!" The next is again Peter's normal handwriting and it says: "An idea for a movie: a phalanx of jackbooted thugs, all with Hitler mustaches, Nazi-salutes a picture of W, chanting 'Seig-Heil Bush!' Background: a Union Bank banner." The next is some math scribbles, apparently some simple geometry, algebra and I think it is a proof wherein he could "prove" that a 90-deg angle was greater than 90 degrees. Did anyone ever see him do that one? How about the trisection of a given angle? The next is an email with the date May 07, 2004 in which Peter wrote me to explain how he knew what day of the week I was born on. Since it exists only on paper, I will reproduce it here: Hi Dobe-- Well you asked me about my "instant" perpetual calendar. How I got this "recipe" was, I was about 10 years old, and I looked in a dictionary under perpetual calendar, and here is what I gleaned: OK, suppose the date is MM/DD/CCYY. 1) take 1/4 of YY and add that to YY (discard fractions) 2) add the century number : 1800: 2, 1900: 0, 2000: 6, 2100: 4, 2200: 2, 2300: 0, etc. 3) add the date of the month 4) add the month number: for regular years: 144-025-036-146 for leap years: 034-025-036-146 bearing in mind that a certury year is only a leap year if it's divisible by 400...) 5) divide by 7 and the remainder is the day of the week: Sunday = 1, Monday = 2, etc. All this is much simplified by throwing out multiples of seven at every step! Examples: Pop 3/17/1912 1/4 of 12 is 3, add to 12 is 15, mod 7 is 1 add 17 to 1 is 18, mod 7 is 4 century # is 0, month # is 4, add to 4 is 8 8 mod 7 is 1, so George was born on Sunday. Mother: 1/27/1908 1/4 of 08 is 2, add to 08 is 10, mod 7 is 3 add 27 to 3 is 30, mod 7 is 2 century # is 0, month # is 0, add to 2 is 2 2 mod 7 is 2, so Helen was born on Monday. Peter: 11/11/1939 1/4 of 39 is 9, add to 39 is 48, mod 7 is -1 add 11 to -1 is 10, mod 7 is 3 This email may have gone on, but there is only the one page printed and kept. I had watched Peter work through this in his head (about the day-of-the-week of my birthday), a few days before. He did this feat in a few seconds. It blew me away. Read/Post Comments (0) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top