𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗦

 

Jerry McHale

"I want to thank all those individuals who congratulated me on my 74th birthday. But I'm not 74 anymore. I have completed 74 years on this anonymous globe floating aimlessly through the universe that one day will either be scorched by the sun and or swallowed by a black hole. I am in my 75th year."

From the editor:  The above quote, pilfered from the "McHale Report," is an effort by longtime educator McHale to delineate for us all the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers.

The Biblical Methuselah, for example, lived for 969 years, but his grandson Noah only made it to 950, perhaps because of a bad diet, both of those ages being cardinal numbers.

Yet, if we're speaking of an event occurring in the 14th year of King Ahasuerus, it's understood that he's only ruled for 13 years thus far, 13 being a cardinal number.

Mr. McHale, as he explained, has lived 74 years, in cardinal numbers, but is now in his 75th year, an ordinal number.

Please take note as teacher McHale says this will be on the test.