Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Hits the Big Six-Oh

The Lemming has a reason for not posting anything yesterday. Maybe not a good reason: but a reason just the same.

The Lemming turned 60, was celebrating a birthday, and will now drop the 'editorial we.'

The Big Six-Oh and a Birthday Watermelon

My family did a good job of seeming to have forgotten my birthday. I nearly lost track of the date, myself. Which would have been awkward, since I had a driver's license renewal coming due this year: and that's another topic. I passed the vision test, by the way, and the photo looks like me: which can't be helped, and that's yet another topic.

My wife and #3 daughter came in at noon, with balloons and presents in tow. That's the nicest surprise I've had in - can't remember. A long time. We've now got the complete Danger Mouse series to watch, thanks to my son's efforts. It's not Shakespeare or Lucas: but I think we'll like it. Danger Mouse, that is.

#3 daughter explained that they couldn't find any balloons with "60" on them, but I think the slogans they found were at least as appropriate. Those balloons have 'attitude,' of which this family has at least its share.

"It's not the age ... it's the attitude."

"Age is just a number. (A high one in your case - but just a number.)"

That evening they brought out the birthday watermelon. I'd wonder if they'd find a cake analog: being diabetic isn't as big a problem as it could be, but there are foods I definitely shouldn't eat. Not in any significant quantity, though.

Birthday Candles: on my birthday - - - watermelon.

Those curly candles? Nobody said "screwball," but I suspect that may have been an inspiration for the shape.

As my father used to say: "And a good time was had by all."

60: A Highly Composite Number, and More

Whaddaya know: HCN stands for highly composite number, which "is a positive integer with more divisors than any positive integer smaller than itself."¹ Not only that, but it's a unitary perfect number, an excessive number with an abundance of 48, and - hang on to your hat - a semiperfect number!²

Which probably means more to math geeks than it does to me.

Still, it's interesting.

More Information You Won't Need Next Week (Probably)

Geometry time: solid!

Archimedean solids with:

• 60 vertices
  • Truncated icosahedron
  • Rhombicosidodecahedron
  • Snub dodecahedron
  • Truncated dodecahedron
• 60 edges
  • Snub cube
  • Icosidodecahedron

What time is it?

An hour is 60 minutes, a minute is 60 seconds, and we have the Babylonians to thank for that, sort of.² I suppose somebody's tried imposing a 'decimal' day: and that's another topic.

And, of course, 2060 is the year when - whoops. That hasn't happened yet.

Almost-related posts:

• "Google's 13th, and Where Did the Month Go?!"
  (September 27, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Back, and Pooped"
  (August 10, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Taking a Sabbatical, Sort Of"
  (July 26, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Taking the Day Off - Again"
  (May 4, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: The Lemming Gets Transparent"
  (April 18, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Why Write Posts as "the Lemming?"
  • The Man Behind the Lemming

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¹ "Highly Composite Number," Wikipedia

² "60 (number)," Wikipedia