Seven random facts about myself

I was recently ‘tagged’ by another blogger. (see comment on this post.) On investigation I found this was a form of chain letter – a concept I disapprove of (see next post for my thoughts on chain letters). The idea is to post seven random facts about myself and then ‘tag’ more people. Whilst I appreciate being noticed by my tagger, I have decided not to continue the chain by tagging anyone else. Mind you, I’m not averse to being given an excuse to post seven random facts:

1. I can recite from memory The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. It has 141 stanzas and takes about half an hour.
2. I belonged to the last scout troupe in Sheffield to switch from the old uniform (khaki shorts and wide brimmed hat) to the new (long trousers and beret). We retained the old ways for about a year longer than we were supposed to.
3. In 2003 the BBC ran a poll of favourite books from which they announced the Big Read top 100. At the time I had read 37 of these. A few I had not completed – for example I had only read the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy and I gave up on Bridget Jones at the end of March – but I still felt I had done enough to count them in the total of 37. As of today (and this figure includes five where I failed to reach the last page but made a valiant attempt), I have read 85 out of 100.
4. I enjoy wearing socks in bright colours, preferably striped. Sadly these are rarely manufactured in men’s sizes.
5. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ENTJ.
6. Before I step out of the bath or shower I quickly remove excess moisture from my hair and body with a warm flannel. My family regard this behaviour as weird. But who leaves wet patches on the bathroom floor, or ends up draped in a soggy towel, eh? Not me.
7. I have a first class honours degree in Mathematics. I believe this entitles me to the following rant concerning people who abuse the word ‘infinitely’: How dare people say (for example), “such and such makes the problem infinitely more difficult” when by any reasonable standards it only makes it two or three times more difficult! Infinity is bigger than three. Infinity is a majestic concept which even mathematicians with years of training can hardy begin to grasp. There are many distinct kinds of infinity, some of which are bigger than others. And when I say many I actually mean there are an infinite number of distinct kinds... and I’m not talking about some piddling little infinite number like a countable infinity of distinct kinds. The variety of distinct kinds of infinity is beyond your (and my) wildest dreams. And yet people casually talk of ‘infinitely’ when they mean ‘many’. We have a range of words to describe many – several, dozens, thousands, billions, ten to the power of a googol etc. Why cannot we employ these more accurate words in our everyday speech and reserve ‘infinitely’ for the times when we really mean ‘infinitely’? (End of rant.)