Do the knuckle thing. First knuckle, first month, 31 days. Space between knuckles are months with 30 days ( with February you’re on your own ). After last knuckle, go back to first knuckle.
I learned the knuckles thing at school, too. But that song is bogus – many of the month names rhyme and can be interchangeable meter-wise. Mnemonic devices are supposed to be simpler than what they help you remember, and this song is way more complicated.
You mean they made a [i]song[/i] out of that? When I learned it, it was just a stupid mnemonic/poem and it only took minutes to learn because it was so short and silly! So, somebody wrote a song in an attempt to make money off of it, eh?! So that probably means it’s illegal to sing it without the “owner’s” permission…just like the “Happy Birthday” song! Ain’t that a murika?
I don’t think by “song” he means something with an actual tune. It can just mean a rhyme. Also, Happy Birthday is now in the public domain and italics should work like this. If this works, just use HTML instead of BBCode.
Turns out, not only is Happy Birthday NOW in the public domain, it always was. And the company was breaking the law in demanding payment, but they could bury everyone else in legal fees, so it was cheaper to pay.
May just feels like it should only have 30 days. Maybe it’s because the name of the month is the shortest. Then again, if we go by the length of the name, September should be the longest month.
Suggestion for you/your web designer: the comic should be displayed in native resolution if at all possible. Currently, on my 1920×1080 screen, your 1240×454 comic is being scaled to 1238×453, which is a negligible change but enough to make your crisp lines go soft and blurry. It took me a couple days to nail down what bugged (ha) me about your site’s redesign.
For anyone else curious, try right-clicking the comic and choosing “Open in new tab” to see the native image versus how it’s displayed here. Those two pixels really throw it off, IMO.
Or you could always use control- (hold down the control key and hit the minus key). I have pages come up in odd sizes all the time and my hubs told me to do that. But I’m on a 17″ lap top so everything looks off at times.
And I learned the rhyme back in the dark ages when I was in school. Still have to recite it to remember which month has what days. I’m old and senile and tend to forget these things now. Unfortunately, I could never tell time, turns out I’m dyslexic. I reverse numbers so badly it takes two of us to balance the checkbook so I can make sure everything is entered right.
Well the system is based on actual world mechanics like the solar and lunar cycles.
A day is sunrise to sunrise.
A month is based on a lunar cycle – full moon to full moon.
A year is based on a solar cycle – solstice to solstice.
The two don’t mesh all that well so we ended up with the compromise we have now.
Yeah, they couldn’t all be 29, 30 or 31 and there had to be a leap year 397 out of 400 years but making February 28 days was fairly arbitrary. January and February didn’t exist in the earlier Roman calendars; supposedly the calendar didn’t include the winter. There were various “fixes” that didn’t help until Julius came up with the current calendar (after a 445 day year to get back in sync).
I never learned the rhyme or the knuckle thing. I just know that it mostly alternates between 31 and 30 days with February and August being the exceptions or maybe I just memorized which months were 31 days or maybe sometimes I have to look at a calendar.
That rhyme thing is lame.
Do the knuckle thing. First knuckle, first month, 31 days. Space between knuckles are months with 30 days ( with February you’re on your own ). After last knuckle, go back to first knuckle.
http://tipnut.com/monthly-knuckles/
My hand is raised. I’ve never heard of the song though, just the knuckle counting.
I keep forgetting May has 31 days too. Like you said, it’s not like the calendars are going to screw up just because of my ignorance 😉
Here’s how my grandfather taught it to me:
30 days hath September
and the rest I can’t remember
No, Adam, there isn’t one more day in May. That would be the 32nd. We don’t have that. Even in a leap year.
I learned the knuckles thing at school, too. But that song is bogus – many of the month names rhyme and can be interchangeable meter-wise. Mnemonic devices are supposed to be simpler than what they help you remember, and this song is way more complicated.
I am pretty darn sure that all but one have 30 days, except for that annoying weirdo February who can’t even get the weather thing straight.
You mean they made a [i]song[/i] out of that? When I learned it, it was just a stupid mnemonic/poem and it only took minutes to learn because it was so short and silly! So, somebody wrote a song in an attempt to make money off of it, eh?! So that probably means it’s illegal to sing it without the “owner’s” permission…just like the “Happy Birthday” song! Ain’t that a murika?
Evidently italics doesn’t work here!
I don’t think by “song” he means something with an actual tune. It can just mean a rhyme. Also, Happy Birthday is now in the public domain and italics should work like this. If this works, just use HTML instead of BBCode.
Turns out, not only is Happy Birthday NOW in the public domain, it always was. And the company was breaking the law in demanding payment, but they could bury everyone else in legal fees, so it was cheaper to pay.
May just feels like it should only have 30 days. Maybe it’s because the name of the month is the shortest. Then again, if we go by the length of the name, September should be the longest month.
my wife and i had an argument the other day about whether may or june had 31 days in it..
Also a knuckler, over singer.
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty one, save February which has twenty eight. Or something like that.
I double-checked on knuckles.
Hey Adam,
Suggestion for you/your web designer: the comic should be displayed in native resolution if at all possible. Currently, on my 1920×1080 screen, your 1240×454 comic is being scaled to 1238×453, which is a negligible change but enough to make your crisp lines go soft and blurry. It took me a couple days to nail down what bugged (ha) me about your site’s redesign.
For anyone else curious, try right-clicking the comic and choosing “Open in new tab” to see the native image versus how it’s displayed here. Those two pixels really throw it off, IMO.
If this is a known issue, I apologize. 🙂
I love this comic, but why is it suddenly wider than my browser window?
Or you could always use control- (hold down the control key and hit the minus key). I have pages come up in odd sizes all the time and my hubs told me to do that. But I’m on a 17″ lap top so everything looks off at times.
And I learned the rhyme back in the dark ages when I was in school. Still have to recite it to remember which month has what days. I’m old and senile and tend to forget these things now. Unfortunately, I could never tell time, turns out I’m dyslexic. I reverse numbers so badly it takes two of us to balance the checkbook so I can make sure everything is entered right.
@Ruth – I know how to fix it each time I visit the page. I was just wondering why it changed.
I grew up with a slightly different version of the poem:
“Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty one,
Except my Uncle Spit, who was given thirty-to-life.”
FYI, I never heard the poem until an adult, but learned the “knuckle” system, which I always thought was cool.
* Make a fist (off hand)
* Count knuckles & spaces between (up, down): jan, feb, mar…
The “high” points have the higher numbers (31), the others 30, except Feb, which everyone can remember.
Stupid useless mnemonics for a random bullshit system
Well the system is based on actual world mechanics like the solar and lunar cycles.
A day is sunrise to sunrise.
A month is based on a lunar cycle – full moon to full moon.
A year is based on a solar cycle – solstice to solstice.
The two don’t mesh all that well so we ended up with the compromise we have now.
Yeah, they couldn’t all be 29, 30 or 31 and there had to be a leap year 397 out of 400 years but making February 28 days was fairly arbitrary. January and February didn’t exist in the earlier Roman calendars; supposedly the calendar didn’t include the winter. There were various “fixes” that didn’t help until Julius came up with the current calendar (after a 445 day year to get back in sync).
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55327/why-are-there-only-28-days-february
I never learned the rhyme or the knuckle thing. I just know that it mostly alternates between 31 and 30 days with February and August being the exceptions or maybe I just memorized which months were 31 days or maybe sometimes I have to look at a calendar.
Alt title: “Times against humanity”.
*sigh*
…
*raises hand*
Florg o’clock?! That’s three figglenurps from now!