Scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis L. 1753 (more at Wikipedia)
Scarlet Varlet
Scarlet Varlet
Froth of a Boy
“Portrait Of A Boy” by Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943)
After the whipping he crawled into bed,
Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping.
How funny uncle’s hat had looked striped red!
He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping
A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before
In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed,
Flooding his bed with radiance. On the floor
Fat motes danced. He sobbed, closed his eyes and dreamed.
Warm sand flowed round him. Blurts of crimson light
Splashed the white grains like blood. Past the cave’s mouth
Shone with a large, fierce splendor, wildly bright,
The crooked constellations of the South;
Here the Cross swung; and there, affronting Mars,
The Centaur stormed aside a froth of stars.
Within, great casks, like wattled aldermen,
Sighed of enormous feasts, and cloth of gold
Glowed on the walls like hot desire. Again,
Beside webbed purples from some galleon’s hold,
A black chest bore the skull and bones in white
Above a scrawled “Gunpowder!” By the flames,
Decked out in crimson, gemmed with syenite,
Hailing their fellows with outrageous names,
The pirates sat and diced. Their eyes were moons.
“Doubloons!” they said. The words crashed gold. “Doubloons!”
• Stephen Vincent Benét at Wikipedia
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
The title of this post is a paronomasia on the Irish idiom “broth of a boy”, which means “a lively, energetic, or highly capable boy or young man”.
Power Flip
12 is an interesting number in a lot of ways. Here’s one way I haven’t seen mentioned before:
12 = 3^1 * 2^2
The digits of 12 represent the powers of the primes in its factorization, if primes are represented from right-to-left, like this: …7, 5, 3, 2. But I couldn’t find any more numbers like that in base 10, so I tried a power flip, from right-left to left-right. If the digits from left-to-right represent the primes in the order 2, 3, 5, 7…, then this number is has prime-power digits too:
81312000 = 2^8 * 3^1 * 5^3 * 7^1 * 11^2 * 13^0 * 17^0 * 19^0
Or, more simply, given that n^0 = 1:
81312000 = 2^8 * 3^1 * 5^3 * 7^1 * 11^2
I haven’t found any more left-to-right prime-power digital numbers in base 10, but there are more in other bases. Base 5 yields at least three (I’ve ignored numbers with just two digits in a particular base):
110 in b2 = 2^1 * 3^1 (n=6)
130 in b6 = 2^1 * 3^3 (n=54)
1010 in b2 = 2^1 * 3^0 * 5^1 (n=10)
101 in b3 = 2^1 * 3^0 * 5^1 (n=10)
202 in b7 = 2^2 * 3^0 * 5^2 (n=100)
3020 in b4 = 2^3 * 3^0 * 5^2 (n=200)
330 in b8 = 2^3 * 3^3 (n=216)
13310 in b14 = 2^1 * 3^3 * 5^3 * 7^1 (n=47250)
3032000 in b5 = 2^3 * 3^0 * 5^3 * 7^2 (n=49000)
21302000 in b5 = 2^2 * 3^1 * 5^3 * 7^0 * 11^2 (n=181500)
7810000 in b9 = 2^7 * 3^8 * 5^1 (n=4199040)
81312000 in b10 = 2^8 * 3^1 * 5^3 * 7^1 * 11^2
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
When I searched for 81312000 at the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, I discovered that these are Meertens numbers, defined at A246532 as the “base n Godel encoding of x [namely,] 2^d(1) * 3^d(2) * … * prime(k)^d(k), where d(1)d(2)…d(k) is the base n representation of x.”
Coptic Optics
Coptic Cross with abbreviation Ⲓⲏ̅ⲥ̅ Ⲡⲭ̅ⲥ̅ Ⲡ̀ϣⲏⲣⲓ ⲙ̀ⲪϮ standing for Ⲓⲏⲥⲟⲩⲥ Ⲡⲓⲭ̀ⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲥ Ⲡ̀ϣⲏⲣⲓ ⲙ̀Ⲫ̀ⲛⲟⲩϯ,
Iêsous Piekhristos Epshêri Emefnouti, “Jesus Christ, Son of God” (see Wikipedia)
Performativizing Papyrocentricity #78
Papyrocentric Performativity Presents…
• Moist and Marvellous – The Hidden World of Mosses, Neil Bell (Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, 2023)
• Mutton Ju: The Balls-Up in Brideshead
• Little Littérateur – Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited, Philip Eade (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2016)
• Vegetarian Villan – Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond, Geezer Butler (HarperCollins 2023)
• Blood Triangle – Blood Work, Michael Connelly (1998)
• Haute Coltour – The World According to Colour: A Cultural History, James Fox (Penguin 2021)
• Heil Halitosis! – Bad Breath, David Britton (Savoy Books 2022)
The Number of the Creased
Here’s an idea for a story à la M.R. James. A middle-aged scholar opens some mail one morning and finds nothing inside one envelope but a strip of paper with the numbers 216348597 written on it in sinister red ink. Someone has folded the strip several times so that there are creases between groups of numbers, like this: 216|348|5|97. Wondering what the significance of the creases is, the scholar hits on the step of adding the numbers created by them:
216 + 348 + 5 + 97 = 666
After that… Well, I haven’t written the story yet. But that beginning raises an obvious question. Is there any other way of getting a Number of the Creased from 216348597? That is, can you get 666, the Number of the Beast, by dividing 216348597 in another way? Yes, you can. In fact, there are six ways of creating 666 by dividing-and-summing 216348597:
666 = 2 + 1 + 634 + 8 + 5 + 9 + 7
666 = 2 + 163 + 485 + 9 + 7
666 = 216 + 348 + 5 + 97
666 = 21 + 63 + 485 + 97
666 = 21 + 6 + 34 + 8 + 597
666 = 2 + 16 + 3 + 48 + 597
216348597 is a permutation of 123456789, so does 123456789 yield a Number of the Creased? Yes. Two of them, in fact:
666 = 123 + 456 + 78 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 567 + 89
And 987654321 yields another:
666 = 9 + 87 + 6 + 543 + 21
And what about other permutations of 123456789? These are the successive records:
Using 123456789
666 = 123 + 456 + 78 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 567 + 89 (c=2)
Using 123564789
666 = 12 + 3 + 564 + 78 + 9
666 = 123 + 56 + 478 + 9
666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 564 + 7 + 89 (c=3)
Using 125463978
666 = 1 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 639 + 7 + 8
666 = 12 + 546 + 3 + 97 + 8
666 = 1 + 254 + 6 + 397 + 8
666 = 1 + 2 + 546 + 39 + 78 (c=4)
Using 139462578
666 = 13 + 9 + 4 + 625 + 7 + 8
666 = 139 + 462 + 57 + 8
666 = 1 + 394 + 6 + 257 + 8
666 = 1 + 39 + 46 + 2 + 578
666 = 13 + 9 + 4 + 62 + 578 (c=5)
Using 216348597
666 = 2 + 1 + 634 + 8 + 5 + 9 + 7
666 = 2 + 163 + 485 + 9 + 7
666 = 216 + 348 + 5 + 97
666 = 21 + 63 + 485 + 97
666 = 21 + 6 + 34 + 8 + 597
666 = 2 + 16 + 3 + 48 + 597 (c=6)
216348597 is the best of the bestial. No other permutation of 123456789 yields as many as six Numbers of the Creased.
Sanctisonic Symmetry
Holy Fawn, Realms EP (2015)
I like the symmetry and simplicity of this cover, though I think the style and color of the text could be improved on. Here are two variants on the cover:
Cover without text
Cover with mirrored text
Elsewhere Other-Accessible…
• Holy Fawn at Bandcamp
Tiger Time
Kuching bĕrtandok, “When cats have horns” — Malay proverb used in Anthony Burgess’s Time for a Tiger (1956).
Osmic Ways
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum…
osmic adj. Of or relating to the sense of smell. Also: relating to odour. [ancient Greek ὀσμή, osmē, smell, odour + ‑ic suffix] — Oxford English Dictionary
Fair Pairs
You can get a glimpse of the gorgeous very easily. After all, you can work out the following sum in your head: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = ?
The answer is… 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15. So that sum is example of this pattern: n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). A simple computer program will soon supply other sums of consecutive numbers following the same pattern. I think these patterns based on the pair n1 and n2 are beautiful, so I’d call them fair pairs:
15 = sum(1..5)
27 = sum(2..7)
429 = sum(4..29)
1353 = sum(13..53)
1863 = sum(18..63)
3388 = sum(33..88)
3591 = sum(35..91)
7119 = sum(7..119)
78403 = sum(78..403)
133533 = sum(133..533)
178623 = sum(178..623)
2282148 = sum(228..2148)
2732353 = sum(273..2353)
3882813 = sum(388..2813)
7103835 = sum(710..3835)
13335333 = sum(1333..5333)
17016076 = sum(1701..6076)
17786223 = sum(1778..6223)
I went looking for variants on that pattern. If the function rev(n) reverses the digits of n, here’s n1:rev(n2) = sum(n1..n2):
155975 = sum(155..579)
223407 = sum(223..704)
4957813 = sum(495..3187)
I like that pattern, but it doesn’t seem beautiful like n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). Nor does rev(n1):n2 = sum(n1..n2):
1575 = sum(51..75)
96444 = sum(69..444)
304878 = sum(403..878)
392933 = sum(293..933)
3162588 = sum(613..2588)
3252603 = sum(523..2603)
3642738 = sum(463..2738)
3772853 = sum(773..2853)
6653691 = sum(566..3691)
8714178 = sum(178..4178)
But rev(n1):rev(n2) = sum(n1..n2) is beautiful again, in a twisted kind of way:
97944 = sum(79..449)
452489 = sum(254..984)
3914082 = sum(193..2804)
6097063 = sum(906..3607)
6552663 = sum(556..3662)
Now try swapping n1 and n2. Here’s n2:n1 = sum(n1..n2):
204 = sum(4..20)
216 = sum(6..21)
20328 = sum(28..203)
21252 = sum(52..212)
21762 = sum(62..217)
23287 = sum(87..232)
23490 = sum(90..234)
2006118 = sum(118..2006)
2077402 = sum(402..2077)
2132532 = sum(532..2132)
2177622 = sum(622..2177)
Do I find the pattern beautiful? Yes, but it’s not as beautiful as n1:n2 = sum(n1..n2). The beauty disappears in n2:rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2):
21074 = sum(47..210)
21465 = sum(56..214)
22797 = sum(79..227)
2013561 = sum(165..2013)
2046803 = sum(308..2046)
2099754 = sum(457..2099)
2145065 = sum(560..2145)
And rev(n2):n1 = sum(n1..n2):
638 = sum(8..36)
2952 = sum(52..92)
21252 = sum(52..212)
23287 = sum(87..232)
66341 = sum(41..366)
208477 = sum(477..802)
2522172 = sum(172..2252)
2852982 = sum(982..2582)
7493772 = sum(772..3947)
8714178 = sum(178..4178)
Finally, and fairly again, rev(n2):rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2):
638 = sum(8..36)
125541 = sum(145..521)
207972 = sum(279..702)
158046 = sum(640..851)
9434322 = sum(223..4349)
The beauty’s back. And it has almost become self-aware. In rev(n2):rev(n1) = sum(n1..n2), each side of the equation seems to be looking at the other half as those it’s looking into a mirror.
Previously Pre-Posted (Please Peruse)…
• Nuts for Numbers — looking at patterns like 2772 = sum(22..77)
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 