Blog: A Limerick Ox

Did you know that the Egyptian numeral for the number 100,000 was a hieroglyph representing a tadpole? Isn't that cute? Weren't ancient civilizations cute? A tadpole! What a choice! I mean, they could have chosen anything to represent such a large integer, and maybe something more imposing than a tadpole, like an elephant, or the broken spine of a Hebrew slave. But no; they stuck with the image of a cute little frog baby as a symbol for a lofty number: what a bunch of aesthetes! I mention this because I want [...]

• Mark Berube - Flowers on the stones