Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Sweet Un-birthday Gifts

Although many people are familiar with "Alice in Wonderland" (Proper title: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"), I actually preferred its sequel, "Through the Looking Glass: And What Alice Found There."

The book has a chapter where Alice meeting Humpty Dumpty and admires his cravat, which he claims was an un-birthday gift. This prompts Alice to ask, "What is an un-birthday gift?"

The following exhangeg is amusing.

“A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of course.”

Alice considered a little. “I like birthday presents best,” she said at last.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Humpty Dumpty. “How many days are there in a year?”

“Three hundred and sixty-five,” said Alice.

“And how many birthdays have you?”

“One.”

“And if you take one from three hundred and sixty-five, what remains?”

“Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.”

Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. “I’d rather see that done on paper,” he said.

Alice couldn’t help smiling as she took out her memorandum-book, and worked the sum for him:

365
    1
____
364
___

Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it carefully. “That seems to be done right—” he began.

“You’re holding it upside down!” Alice interrupted.

“To be sure I was!” Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned it round for him. “I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right—though I haven’t time to look it over thoroughly just now—and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents—”

“Certainly,” said Alice.

“And only one for birthday presents, you know."


I recently received a beautiful un-birthday present from Cindy, a bookmark full of BryonySeries symbols. How many can you name?


Send me an email with the symbols to bryonyseries@gmail.com and I'll send you a free BryonySeries book (your choice), my un-birthday gift to you.








No comments: