Sunday, October 10, 2010

Tendencies

Seems like today should in some way be significant. I mean, it's the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the millennium - 10.10.10.

It can seem scarily portentous, like the alignment of the planets which, in 2012, is predicted by some to lead to the earth's being torn apart by chaotic gravitational struggles. Think the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth: ten ten ten TEN.

It can seem final - how many AM radio stations are at 1010. Is it only New York's that's called "Ten Ten Wins"? What does that even mean?

Or it can just seem the reductio ad absurdam of our digital - meaning ten-fingered - existence. (In neither the Simpsons' Springfield it wouldn't matter; they dodged this bullet on 08.08.08.) That and the consequences of dating the birth of Christ when we did. (In neither Jewish nor Islamic calendars is it 10.10.10 either.)

In the end, my punning mind just hears an open-ended ellipsis. In Japanese (although in Japan it isn't 10.10.10 but 22.10.10) てんてんてん (ten ten ten) is how you say "dot dot dot."

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