Word: hammering
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Hebrew, figures can be expressed by letters of the alphabet. The combinations of letters that represent larger numbers may, coincidentally, spell out words. A while ago, Israeli Cultural Affairs Minister Zevulun Hammer must have flipped a few months ahead in his calendar book. To his surprise, he found that the letters of the next year on the Jewish Calendar--5744, which starts next fall--spell out in clear-as-day Hebrew "destroy...
...last week, the forward-looking Hammer announced his proposal that the government shuffle the numbers a bit for the upcoming year. Instead of transcribing into letters the sequence "five-seven hundred-forty-four," the normal procedure, he suggested that the figure read: "five-three hundred-four-forty-four hundred." In sum, the jumble of letters would add up to the same total...
Those not inclined to mathematical pursuits may find the rear-ranged figure cumbersome to decipher. But the benefits of Hammer's innovative and foresighted solution would far outweigh the potential confusion. The new combination would prevent the wide-spread proliferation of documents unwittingly displaying a call to destruction all over Israel...
...fact, Hammer's proposed reform is propitious for a second reason. The new configuration for next year would spell out, conveniently enough, both "the bad spirit is dead" and "beautiful fields...
...Hammer has his way, students and workers and diplomats in the Jewish state can look forward to enjoying these soothing messages as they permeate their daily lives next year...