A Conversation for The Twelve Days of Christmas
... and the total is
Jan^ Started conversation Nov 20, 1999
For sad people everywhere, and because I had nothing better to do, the total accumulation of unwanted gifts at the end of the Twelve Days is :
12 partridges
12 pear trees
22 turtle doves
30 French hens
36 calling birds
40 gold rings
42 geese
an unspecified number of goose eggs
42 swans
a lot of water
40 maids (assuming you have kept the Lords away from them, so they are still maiden)
one assumes, 40 associated cows
more gallons of sour milk than it is pleasant to contemplate
36 very tired Ladies
30 even tireder Lords
22 breathless pipers
12 drummers - still drumming - SHUT UP WILL YOU!
A grand total of 416 presents (including the cows, but not the eggs, milk or water).
I bet you were dying to know that....
... and the total is
Lupa Mirabilis, Serious Inquisitor Posted Nov 21, 1999
We had an extra credit problem on a calculus test last year in which we were supposed to compute the total number of gifts over the twelve days, and then the total number after a year of the same procedure; being the nerd that I am (or perhaps it's more a consequence of laziness), I actually wrote a calculator program to compute this figure for any number of days, and I've still got it.
... and the total is
Cheerful Dragon Posted Nov 23, 1999
If you just add the basic presents (i.e. a partridge in a pear tree = 1, a maid and her cow = 1) you get 364, one less than the number of days in a non-leap year. I suppose this had some significance in the days when the carol was written. Maybe the missing day was Christmas Day.
... and the total is
Lupa Mirabilis, Serious Inquisitor Posted Nov 23, 1999
I think it's probably coincidence.
Key: Complain about this post
... and the total is
More Conversations for The Twelve Days of Christmas
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."