[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But just as on January 4, if you were
> born on January 1 you would not say "I am a year old" neither can
> you claim to be 25 years old if that won't happen until August. In
> other words, 1/4/2006 less 8/11/1981 results in a difference of 24
> years, 7 months and 1 week (more or less, I am too tired to calculate
> it to the minute right now. We could tighten it up a bit closer if
> we took the telecom-related messages which appeared in _Human Nets_
> during May through July, 1981 and the first two 'test mailings' which
> went out to the telecom list in August and said those were 'really
> part of the Digest' as well. But we cannot say that, and I will use
> the cover date on the first issue as the starting point. A lot of
> water under the bridge since then, but we have to have some reference
> point to work with. PAT]
But Bob's point (I think) is that from _volume_ 1 to _volume_ 26 is not a measurement of elapsed time but a cumulative _count_.
'How many days are there in January?'
'Well, let's see. The first day is the 1st and the last day is the 31st. So, if we subtract...one from 31...right, here we are: there are 30 days in January!'
Cheers,
Henry
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, Henry, when you subtract like that you are _always_ going to come out one short. And when you take a cumulative count you are _always_ going to come out ahead a little, the problem being you cannot make _assumptions_ about what is laying ahead, nor short-cut some portion of what happened in the past. Although I _expect_ three hours from now to be volunteering at the Thursday night community 'free' dinner at Epiphany Church here in Independence as I always do, there is no _guarentee_ of it as we know. 'Terrorists' may blow us all up sometime in the next couple hours, ending everything including this Digest. (Dubya, are you monitoring this email closely?) or I may have another heart attack or stroke. I will say it is 25 years if/when we get to that point. PAT]