Things are insanely busy these days, which basically means that my days are busy, and I am insane.
I am gearing up for my last month in the United Arab Emirates before the semester is finished. Near the end of June, I will be giving a two-day presentation on Business Law to some Emirati dudes for a nice chunk of change, in return for which I will have to endure another insanely busy month.
After that, I will get to enjoy the benefit of being back in the States. I will also get to enjoy a long-deserved period of unemployment. I don't want to find a job immediately, but I also don't want to go a year without working. It is a porridge situation, but I forget which folk tale the porridge is in. Three bears? Did the big bad wolf come and blow their house in? No, those were pigs.
Why are there so many instances of threes in folk tales anyway? Three pigs, three bears. Are they just trying to confuse us?
A quick search leads to two wikipedia-based observations, one of which says that the "Rule of Three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, and more effective than other numbers of things."
Huh. Never knew that. I guess that's why so many jokes start off with lines like "A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar."
The other thing I read was a phrase: "omne trium perfectum," which means that "everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete."
So, folklore and jokes use the rule of three . . . as do threesomes. Duh!
Who knew that the number three was such a powerful number?
Hugh Hefner, I suppose.
In other news, the music releases for the month of May have been very, very good, from the National to Daft Punk to a variety of other good albums, I really can't wait to give them a listen. Without music, I don't think I could be anything but miserable.
I am gearing up for my last month in the United Arab Emirates before the semester is finished. Near the end of June, I will be giving a two-day presentation on Business Law to some Emirati dudes for a nice chunk of change, in return for which I will have to endure another insanely busy month.
After that, I will get to enjoy the benefit of being back in the States. I will also get to enjoy a long-deserved period of unemployment. I don't want to find a job immediately, but I also don't want to go a year without working. It is a porridge situation, but I forget which folk tale the porridge is in. Three bears? Did the big bad wolf come and blow their house in? No, those were pigs.
Why are there so many instances of threes in folk tales anyway? Three pigs, three bears. Are they just trying to confuse us?
A quick search leads to two wikipedia-based observations, one of which says that the "Rule of Three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, and more effective than other numbers of things."
Huh. Never knew that. I guess that's why so many jokes start off with lines like "A priest, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar."
The other thing I read was a phrase: "omne trium perfectum," which means that "everything that comes in threes is perfect, or, every set of three is complete."
So, folklore and jokes use the rule of three . . . as do threesomes. Duh!
Who knew that the number three was such a powerful number?
Hugh Hefner, I suppose.
In other news, the music releases for the month of May have been very, very good, from the National to Daft Punk to a variety of other good albums, I really can't wait to give them a listen. Without music, I don't think I could be anything but miserable.
Goldilocks, three syllables.
ReplyDeleteCheckmate.
DeleteI think I stoved 3 fingers on the same hand somehow today.
ReplyDeleteHow do you "stove" fingers? Is that slang? I find that the longer I'm away from home, the more slang I miss. If I stay out here long enough, I'll come back home speaking gibberish. My own language will have left me. That would rule.
Delete