Count on It

Tell me one thing… Why do we count everything?

This morning I heard a report that some tainted cartilage had gotten into some common prescription drug over in (you guessed it) China. Then, as if from the mouth of all truth and wisdom, they tell me that last year 136 people died from this drug.

How do they know that, for reals?

Is it like the Bat Computer?

Now there’s a fine piece of engineering! The Bat Computer was this awesome looking console, about as big as a jetski, which was attached to the magical, mystical Bat Diamond. All you had to do was just walk over there, turn a few levers and cranks and the bat computer would spit out an inexplicable yet accurate answer to your wildest questions.

But for reals… why do we count everything? And how do we keep running counts of things over such a long period of time, even seemingly insignificant things like how many pounds of human skin are shed from your body every year. (ewww, I know)

Maybe once upon a time there were many math nerds who didn’t have the social skills to become a high school math teacher, so they became a counter-person, sitting behind large, solid oak government beaurocracy desks with large abacuses just counting random things as they happened?

Yes. They come home at 5pm every day to greet their wife and kids and have a nice home cooked meal (50’s style). That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

4 thoughts on “Count on It”

  1. It may be the math nerds, but it is also the OCD people. Some of us are obsessed with alphabetizing
    things (like me), and some are obsessed with counting things (math nerds). Either way, I heart
    them because at least this way I can put this information towards my paranoias without actually
    having to gather it myself. 🙂
    P.S. What was the drug that was tainted?

  2. Count the number of times Myron Felgewater becomes a bishop.

    Answer? One. He’s one right now. Am I the only one who finds that frightening?

  3. Sam, you’re killing me with this post! Are you being serious? Gathering data is just about the single most important activity we do…. I mean, what else would we manipulate to suit our interests? 😉

    Glad you like the blog, I guess I’ll have to update it now that I have a reader…lol.

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