“What day is today?”
Here are some suggestions as
to substitute words for all twelve months:-
“Gosh, you’ve got me, I don’t know what day it is.”
“Well, why don’t
you look at that news paper you have in
your pocket-that should tell us.”
“Oh, no,
that won’t do us any good; it’s yesterday’s paper!”
ALTHOUGH all of us can tell what day today is by looking at yesterday’s paper-how many of you can tell quickly, or
slowly, for that matter, the day of the week that any date this year will fall
on? Not many, different methods for calculating the day of
the week for any given date, not the least of which is counting on your
fingers.
Some of the systems are so
involved that is seers rauces simpler to
take the time to find a calendar, and
get you information there. On the other hand, there are ways of actually knowing the day of actually knowing the day of the week for any
date in the twentieth century! This
doesn’t seem to me to have any particular practical value; although it may have
for some of you. Used as a memory stunt, however, it is quite
impressive.
I intend to teach you how to do that in this chapter, but first, for
practical use, I have come across a very simple way to find the day of the week
for any date of the current year. This idea is so easy, that most of you will
wonder why you didn’t think of it yourselves. This is it:-
All you have to do is memorize this twelve digit number:- 633752741631, the way you’ve been
taught to do. You can break the digits at a time. For example, you can remember
this number by making a link of these four words, chum, mug, linger and dish
mat. Once you have memorized the number,
you can tell the day of the week for any date
of the year 1957! Each digit in the
number represents the first
Sunday of the month for one of the twelve months! The first Sunday in
January falls on the 6th of
January; the first Sunday in February falls on the 3rd of February;
the first Sunday in march is the 3rd of march; April 7th is the first Sunday in April;
may 5th is the first Sunday in may, and so on.
All right , so
now you know the day of the month upon which the first Sunday falls for each month. How can this help you
to know the day of the week for any date of the year? Simple! You wish to know
the day of the week for august 22nd, 1957-you know that the first
Sunday of august is the 4th
of the month. Knowing this, your calculations are elementary. If the 4th is a Sunday, then the next Sunday is the 11th
and the following Sunday, then the 18th.
Tuesday, the 21st is Wednesday, and, of course, august 22nd
is a Thursday!
Do you want to know
the day of the week on which Christmas fell in the year 1957? Well, thanks to
the twelve digit number, you know that the first Sunday of December is the 1st
of the month. Therefore the 8th must be a Sunday, the 15th
is a Sunday, and the 22nd is a Sunday. If the 22nd of
December is a Sunday, then the 23rd
is Monday, the 24th is Tuesday, and the 25th of December
(Christmas) must fall on Wednesday.
Here is the way my mind actually works when I want the day of the week for any date this year:-
I use the words, chum, mug, linger and
dish mat to remember the twelve digits. I know that the word, “chum,”
gives me the first Sunday of the month for January and February. The word, chum, mug, linger and dish mat to remember
the first Sunday of march and April. “linger” gives me the same information for
may, June, July and august, and I know that “dish mat” represents September,
October, November and December.
Now, if I wanted to know the day
of the week for , say, November 9, 1957-I immediately think of “dish mat” I
know that the third consonant sound of this word represents the first Sunday of
November is also a Sunday is the 3rd, therefore the 10th
is a Sunday, the 9th of November must be a Saturday.
If, in your particular business, it would be a help if you knew the day
of the week for the present year and the following year-get a hold of next
year’s calendar, and memorize the twelve digits for that year by making up a
memorize the twelve digits for the year by making up a link of four or five
years. However, the memory feat that follows is also a practical method of knowing
the day of the week for any date in the twentieth century.
As a stunt, you would tell your friends that you’ve memorized all the
calendars of the twentieth century. To prove it, ask them to call out any day;
a date of which sary, of course, so that
they can check your answer. Most people remember the day of the week of their
weddings, graduations or other important anniversaries. When the date is
called, you almost immediately tell them the day of the week for than
particular date!
To accomplish this you must know
two things besides the month, day and year: a certain number for the year,
which I will refer to as the “year key,” and a certain number for the month,
which I’ll call the “month key.”
Perhaps, if I explained
the method and procedure before going into the technicalities, you would find
it easier to understand. This is it:- let’s assume that you want to know the
day of the week for march 27, 1913.
Let’s also assume that you know the
“year key” for 1913. Let’s also assume that you know the “year key” for 1913 is
2, and that the “month key” for march is 4. You
would add these two keys, arriving at #6. Now you add this number (6) to
the day, in this particular case-#27 (march 27). This gives you a total of 33. The last step
is to remove all the sevens from your total. Seven goes into 33 four times,
4x7=28); remove 28 from 33, which gives you a final total of 5. That is your day-the
fifth day of the week is Thursday! For this stunt we must consider Sunday as
the first day, Monday the second day; Tuesday the third day; Wednesday the
fourth day; Thursday the fifth day;
Friday the sixth day and Saturday the seventh day .
March 27,1913 did fall on a Thursday! Please don’t consider this
complicated; it isn’t. actually you will never have to add any number higher than seven. The keys for the years and
the months are all either 0,1,2,3,4,5,6. Sevens are always removed as soon as
possible. If you had to add a “year key”
of 5 to a “month key” of 6, you which leaves you with 4. The 4is all you
would have to keep working with. If the day
that is given you is higher than seven, you remove all the sevens, i.e.-
the date is the 16th; remove the two sevens (2x7=14) and use the
remainder of 2 only. In the above example, you
simply add 4 to 2, which tells you that the day of the week is the
sixth, or Friday.
I will give
you a few more actual examples, after u acquaint you with the year and month
keys, and my methods for remembering them.
These are the month keys, which will always
remain the same:-
January -1
|
July-0
|
February-4
|
August-3
|
March-4
|
September-6
|
April-0
|
October-1
|
May-2
|
November-4
|
June-5
|
December-6
|
I’ll give you
a memory aid for remembering each of these keys. The method that follows is one
way, and I’ll explain one other. You can
use whichever you like best, or one which you think of yourself.
January is the
first month of the year; therefore it is easy to recall that the key for
January is 1.
February is a cold
month, it usually has plenty of snow; both the words, “cold” and “snow” have
four letters, so the key for February is 4.
In march the wind blows.
Both “wind” and “blow” have four
letters; which will help you to remember that the key for march is 4.
April is known for its
showers. “showers” has seven letters; all the sevens must be removed; (7-7=0)
so we know that the key for April is zero.
The key for may is 2. Do you recall the game
we used to play when we were children,
the one in which we would say, “may I take 2 giant steps?” well, if you
remember that phrase, you will, if you remember that phrase, you will recall
that the key for May is 2. Or, you might think of “may day” or “may pole,”
consisting of two words.
“June bride” is a common
phrase; “bride” has five letters. So you will remember that the key for June is
#5.
For July, you could use
this for a memory aid:- we all know that
July 4th is a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. Take the two sevens from the year 1776, leaving 1and6.
One and six are seven; remove this seven, leaving 0. Or, July 4th is
usually associated with fire crackers;
the word “cracker” has seven letters; remove
the seven, leaving 0. The key for July is zero.
August is a hot month. The
word “hot” has three letters; the key for August is 3.
September is the month
during which the leaves start turning brown. “leaves” has six letters; the key
for September is 6.
Octo means eight, remove the seven (8-7=1) leaving one.
The key for October is 1.
November is the
election month. We vote in November; the word, “vote” has four letters, so the
key for November is 4. Or, November is
the 11th month of the year, remove seven, leaving four.
Finally, the big holiday in
December is Christmas. Christmas is the anniversary of the birth of Christ.
“Christ” has six letters, so we know that 6 is the key for December.
Although some of the above
may seem a bit farfetched, they will help you remember the keys. Another way
would be to form a substitute word for each month, (the system of substitute
words will be explained thoroughly in the following chapter) and associate that
to the peg word that represents its key number. For zero, ise any word that contains
the s or z sound only; “zoo” is good,
because it is easy to picture.
January-Jan.-abbreviation of
“janitor.” Associate janitor to “tie.”
February-Fed.-federal
man. Fib or fob. Associate any of these to “rye.”
Two more examples of the system:-
June 2,1923-0 plus 5 is 5
5 plus 2is 7
7 minus 7 is 0
0 is Saturday.
January 29, 1973-4 plus 1 is 5
5
plus 29 is 34
34
minus 28 (4x7) is 6
6
is Friday.
See if you can find
the day of the week for the following dates:- September 9, 1906, January 18,
1916(leap year), august 20, 1974, march 12, 1931 and December 25, 1921.
I don’t intend to tell
you that this system is a snap to learn to do quickly; it does take some time
and study, but, as I’m sure most of you know-nothing worthwhile comes too
easily.
By the way, if you like
this idea better than the one at the
beginning of this chapter, and would like to sue it for practical purposes-you
could remember the “year keys” of only the years you’re interested in. that
might be the previous year, the present year and the following year. With that,
and your “month keys.” You would be able to know the day of the week for any
date within those three years.
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