1/11/11: A Prime Day

2011 has barely begun, and we’ve already arrived at another notably numerical date — one could even say a prime numerical day! Eleven is the 5th prime number (after one, three, five, and seven), and 1/11/11 has (count them) FIVE ones — how about that!? Related to that, I flew from Oakland to Seattle today on Alaska Airlines flight 357 (more primes . . . ), and Nancy and Dick picked me up at 11 AM (that’s 1/11/11 at 11:00)! Even numbers had some action today too: on our way home, Dick noticed at a stoplight that the car’s odometer was on 20,202 — a palindrome — what a day, what a day! (:

Between the 1/11/11 @ 11:00 and 20202, though, we went to the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, which was fabulous (and packed this early Tuesday afternoon). All the pieces are on loan from Musée National Picasso in Paris, which is being renovated. There were so many amazing works, but one of my favorites was this portrait of Dora Maar (painter, poet, photographer, and lover of Picasso):

Portrait of Dora Maar (Picasso, 1937)

And then in a different category of visual representation altogether, today’s Seattle Times included this seismographic record of the Seattle Seahawks fans response to the Seahawks’ “earth-shaking victory” over the New Orleans Saints last Saturday:

Marshawn Lynch's 67-yard touchdown run: the crowd goes wild!

Full newspaper story here.

1/1/11: One One-full Day!

Happy New Year! 2011 is going to be quite the year for the number 1 in dates: it all begins today with 1/1/11, and then in just 10 days we’ll have 1/11/11, followed six or so months later by 11/11/11! In honor of of the all these unities, the Boomerang devotes today’s post to the motto “One for all and all for One.”

First, the phrase in a few other languages . . .

Latin: Unus pro omnibus; omnes pro Uno
French: Un pour tous; tous pour un
German: Einer für alle, alle für einen
Italian: Uno per tutti, tutti per uno

Then for some of its cultural origins and relations . . .
“One for all and all for One” (and its inverse “All for one and one for All”) was the motto of the three muskateers, who, curiously, numbered four: Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d’Artagnan; it’s also the unofficial motto of Switzerland and is inscribed in the dome of the Swiss Federal Palace (see photo). The motto is fitting for a diverse country like Switzerland; it’s similar to the motto “E pluibus unum” — out of many, one–which was for a long time the unofficial motto for the United States–another diverse country–that is, until 1956 when congress adopted “In God we Trust” as our country’s official motto. “E pluribus unum” is still on our currency, though, which says something!

Unus pro omnibus; Omes pro uno -- Dome of Swiss Federal Palace