The longest day of the year
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Comments: 4 (latest 13 hours later)
Tagged: calendar, martin gardner, trivia, puzzles
Today is the longest day of the year! And so is tomorrow!
Yes, I know the equinox was two days ago. Nonetheless:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-THIRD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH
[ed: not "twenty-second" -- thanks, Elizabeth!]
A tie, as you see, with 29 letters each. Or 31 symbols if you count the punctuation. Which I do; surely
TWENTY-THIRD beats SEVENTEENTH by a hyphen?
The ideal candidate would be a
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH. But we won't have one of those until 2017.
For runners-up this year, we have several candidates:
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY TWENTY-FIFTH
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY TWENTY-EIGHTH
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SECOND
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER TWENTY-EIGHTH
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH
Those are 30 symbols each. Much too common, really.
Let's stick with discussing today (and tomorrow). I would propose a new title for these two interesting days -- the
ONLY 2009 DAYS WHICH NEED 31 SYMBOLS. Unfortunately my paradoctor is running towards me, waving some sort of paper and screaming, so I'll have to break this post off and find out what she wants.
Comments imported from Gameshelf
Andrew Plotkin
(September 23, 2009 at 10:27 AM):
You're right! Fixed. Thanks.
(Looks like it's a good day for Gameshelf typoes. Although Jmac got smacked worse than I.)
JAC
(September 23, 2009 at 10:48 AM):
Also, though it of course doesn't affect the length of the spellings and all, the longest day of the year is the summer solstice, right -- not the autumn equinox? (Maybe this was an extra level of humor that I didn't get.)
Andrew Plotkin
(September 23, 2009 at 11:55 AM):
No, that was me just not paying attention. Wow.
(Plus we just had summer -- it's warm here in Boston -- whereas June was cool and rainy this year.)
Great post - really enjoyed this fun fact! However, you should replace "second" with "fourth," as this year, September 24 is Thursday.