(Roughly) Daily

Need to hammer home an arithmetical point?  Dramatize a quantitative comparison?  NumberQuotes has the juice.  One simply types in the number–any number– to be analogized, hits “return”– and up pops a series of striking similes.  For example, if one needs to be clear just how over-the-top excessive $250,000 dollars is (in whatever context), one can choose among:

– $250,000 would buy a Caffe Latte Grande for everyone living in Richardson, Texas

– 250,000 Burger King Whoppers would weigh as much as 9.29 African male elephants

– 250,00 is the number of bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists employed in the US

… and so many more options.  Compelling comparisons aren’t just for Ronald Reagan any longer– now anyone can pick a number, any number, and click here.

As we spice up our speech, we might recall that it was on this date in 1930 (the number of theatrical and performance make-up artists working in the U.S…), on the passing of Empress Zewditu, that Haile Selassie (nee, Tafari Makonnen) was proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia.  While he was, by virtue of his office, the titular head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Salasse is worshipped as God Incarnate by the Rastafarians (who named their faith by conflating “Ras”– “Head,” equivalent to “Duke”– and Salasse’s pre-Imperial first name, “Tafari”).

The Lion of God