Gordon, a creator of websites and contests, urges everyone to appreciate the upcoming once-in-a-century date 11/11/11, saying it’s a day that comes around only “ones upon a time.”
Because there is no 22nd month on the calendar, 11/11/11 is also the only double-figure palindromic date, in which the number reads the same backwards and forwards.
To celebrate a day he sees as mathematically and historically significant, Gordon is holding a contest for the best short story or poem with the beginning words: “Ones Upon A Day.” The contest has been running since Oct. 21 and will end on Nov. 22, which is 11+11+11 days long.
He encourages people to enter their ideas and visions about this day into his contest for the grand prize of $1,111.11. Gordon said the winners will be divided among the best 11+11+11 entries. There is a Facebook event for the contest, which can be found by searching “Ones Upon A Day Contest.”
After the new millennium hit in 2000, mathematically-specific days like this have been occurring and Gordon has held a particular interest in spreading the word about these unusual dates. He has held contests on these numerical occurrences even before the year 2000.
On Sept. 9, 1981, Gordon challenged schools across the nation to make the largest square root symbol to embrace the significance that the square root of 81 is 9. Gordon was hoping students would make the symbol on something as large as a football field but he did not get any takers for the challenge.
His ambitions to see numbers around the world do not stop there. Gordon has produced several websites depicting all of these wacky mathematical days of the year including oddday.net, onesuponaday.net and sqaurerootday.net.
He also is looking ahead a few decades towards days such as “Romeo and Juliet Day,” on Jan. 2, 2035.
“The math purists have a quarter century to brace themselves for Romeo and Juliet Day on 1/2/35,” he said, as the question of “where four art thou?” arises in the numerical sequence of the date.
Gordon explained how the contests began to grow and span to all kinds of demographics, noting how a kindergarten class won his contest for “Odd Day” on 5/7/09.
One of his favorite math days was when Groundhog Day landed on 2/2/04, another occurrence of Gordon’s “square root day.”
“We cut roots of mundane and goofy vegetables into squares (alright, cubes!) and Fed-Ex’d them to the folks who fed, handled and presented Groundhog Phil,” said Gordon.
On that same day, Gordon went to great lengths of effort to contact the CBS sports broadcasters of the Super Bowl just before 2/2/04. Hoping they would mention what he saw as a major math day. Gordon said, “They broke my heart with a nary nod, but I did give it my best shot.”
Some students around campus did not find Gordon’s mathematical revelations as exhilarating as he did. Sophomore Jeremy Roche says, “I’m going to treat it just like any other day.”
However, James Perrault and Dylan Rayburg believe there will be exactly 11 stages of absolute craziness on this day. Gordon encourages students such as these to enter their ideas and visions into his contest of what is to come upon us at this date for the grand prize of $1,111.11.
Presumably many people make wishes when the clock strikes 11:11 for urban legend suggests it is the luckiest time of the day.
“I’m going to wish big that day,” says sophomore Devin Dondero.
A discouraged James Matthews said, “Every single wish I have made at 11:11 has never come true.”
Gordon claims he is not a man of many wishes, however the only thing he plans to wish for on Nov. 11 at 11:11 is that he will be around next century to see another “Ones Upon A Day.”
(Picture courtesy of Google images)
A new location has been established for the Commonwealth Honors College to hang their 1,000 paper cranes in hopes to enlighten UMass students of breast cancer awareness month.
To commemorate October as the month of breast cancer awareness, Alesia Brennan, the graduate assistant of student programs for the Commonwealth Honors College, launched the event with several other commonwealth students to reflect upon those who have been directly and also indirectly affected by the disease.
As students stumble through the W.E.B Dubois library, they may look up to see a display of 1,000 colorful brightly colored paper cranes, all hung by Commonwealth Honors students. The cranes are in lines of eight, where the eighth crane is pink to represent one in every eight women will develop breast cancer in some point in her life.
According the Japanese tradition of origami, the paper crane symbolizes health and peace. In Japanese culture, whom ever folds 1,000 paper cranes is granted a wish for a person to recover from a very serious illness, such as breast cancer.
When Melissa Wolgom, manager of the college’s student programs approached Brennan to organize the event, she was very eager to raise the awareness of breast cancer. The subject of this event really hit home for Brennan when in July of 2010 her mother passed away of the breast cancer. Brennan says, “I was definitely excited. Obviously that holds a really important place in my heart.”
It was important to both Wolgom and Brennan to position these cranes in a place they will be seen by the UMass students, and also to give the Commonwealth Honors College a voice.
Every year the cranes are hung in the honors college lounge where they are only seen by a selected few. Brennan explains it sure would have been easier to simply keep the cranes where they are every year, but the point of this new location was to make both the cranes and Commonwealth Honors College visible to the rest of campus.
The library was Wolgom’s first choice when relocating the cranes. She and Brennan felt it was the best place on campus with the biggest traffic flow of students and faculty to show off the beautiful display.
Once the location was decided, Madeleine Charney chair of the Library Arts Committee was contacted to then find the perfect placement in the library for the cranes. Collaboratively herself, Wolgam, Brennan and commonwealth honors students Christine Markus, Lily Hicks and Ashley Veasy helped facilities to hang the pre-folded cranes of previous years.
Brennan describes how she has no idea where to even start in this origami paper crane folding, and how thankfully when she inherited this project the cranes were already folded and on strings, ready to be hung.
After working with maintenance in the library to hang the cranes, Brennan says, “It’s nice to really stop for a minute and devote this month to making this [breast cancer] known.”
The reception for this event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 25 from 2-4 in the circulation office of the library where apple cider and donuts from Atkins farms will be served.
To commemorate October as the month of breast cancer awareness, Alesia Brennan, the graduate assistant of student programs for the Commonwealth Honors College, launched the event with several other commonwealth students to reflect upon those who have been directly and also indirectly affected by the disease.
As students stumble through the W.E.B Dubois library, they may look up to see a display of 1,000 colorful brightly colored paper cranes, all hung by Commonwealth Honors students. The cranes are in lines of eight, where the eighth crane is pink to represent one in every eight women will develop breast cancer in some point in her life.
According the Japanese tradition of origami, the paper crane symbolizes health and peace. In Japanese culture, whom ever folds 1,000 paper cranes is granted a wish for a person to recover from a very serious illness, such as breast cancer.
When Melissa Wolgom, manager of the college’s student programs approached Brennan to organize the event, she was very eager to raise the awareness of breast cancer. The subject of this event really hit home for Brennan when in July of 2010 her mother passed away of the breast cancer. Brennan says, “I was definitely excited. Obviously that holds a really important place in my heart.”
It was important to both Wolgom and Brennan to position these cranes in a place they will be seen by the UMass students, and also to give the Commonwealth Honors College a voice.
Every year the cranes are hung in the honors college lounge where they are only seen by a selected few. Brennan explains it sure would have been easier to simply keep the cranes where they are every year, but the point of this new location was to make both the cranes and Commonwealth Honors College visible to the rest of campus.
The library was Wolgom’s first choice when relocating the cranes. She and Brennan felt it was the best place on campus with the biggest traffic flow of students and faculty to show off the beautiful display.
Once the location was decided, Madeleine Charney chair of the Library Arts Committee was contacted to then find the perfect placement in the library for the cranes. Collaboratively herself, Wolgam, Brennan and commonwealth honors students Christine Markus, Lily Hicks and Ashley Veasy helped facilities to hang the pre-folded cranes of previous years.
Brennan describes how she has no idea where to even start in this origami paper crane folding, and how thankfully when she inherited this project the cranes were already folded and on strings, ready to be hung.
After working with maintenance in the library to hang the cranes, Brennan says, “It’s nice to really stop for a minute and devote this month to making this [breast cancer] known.”
The reception for this event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 25 from 2-4 in the circulation office of the library where apple cider and donuts from Atkins farms will be served.
