(Author’s Note: This is not meant to be a political posting, and I truly hope that readers do not take it as such. I make it a point not to engage in National Politics in this greatest-of-all-Countries. I feel blessed to be here, and enjoy the relatively low taxation regime under which we live. This article is about numbers and their strange inter-relationships – a subject that has engaged and amused me since childhood).
Today marks the 42nd day of the Presidency being defined by Donald Trump, it is also – as channeled to us decades ago by Douglas Adams – the answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
Heady company for the President to be keeping. It seems a shame that this juxtaposition will last for only 1 day.
What, might you ask, does this have to do with State-legal Cannabis and the emerging position of the Trumpministration on the topic? Follow along, and perhaps the numbers will help shed light on that question.
We are a decimal-centric society. We love things in 10s. We really love things in 100s and 1000s. We also love things (somewhat less, presumably) in .1s and .01s, as well. Why is this? Likely because most of us have 10 fingers and most of us have 10 toes. 10 is built into how we are built. It is built into how we count. It is built into how we think.
It should not be too much of a surprise, then, that when one multiplies President Trump’s length-of-service to the people of America by the constant underlying the numeric system used by most of that populace, the result is —- 420 (technical proof: 42 x 10 = 420).
This connection between our President and Cannabis seems surprising and almost counter-intuitive. It seems so particularly given what Comrade Attorney General seems to think of the product and of those that consume it.
This bothered me earlier today until I realized an indirect numeric connection between how such a good and pure thing as the number 420 could somehow be co-opted by an apparently dishonest and corrupt entity in order to advance it’s unvoiced agenda in the pursuit of furthering American greatness while (or, perhaps, by) decreasing our use and acceptance of Schedule-1 controlled substances.
What I realized, in what can only be described as a brief flashback of almost Alien quality, was that something as pure and good as the number 420 can be turned into something dirty and bad by a couple of simple arithmetic steps.
Step 1: Take 420 and put it in a basket, preferably woven from Hemp (total in basket = 420)
Step 2: Take the first two digits of 420 and reverse them to get 240 and put that in the basket (total in basket = 660). Note that this is not just pulling a numeric trick out of my large hat full of tricks …. as 240 happens to be the result of multiplying the exact same decimal-system root number (10) by the number of bottles of beer in a typical 24-pack (24) —- which experience suggests is often the preferred intoxicant of those that are somehow opposed to 420 and to the plant that it represents. (no technical proof here, as 24 beer would make me unconscious, if not dead — in spite of my 10 fingers)
Final Step: Take the 3 digits that make up 420 and add them together to get 6 and put that in the basket. (technical proof: 4 + 2 + 0 = 6)
That yields a total in the basket of 666 — the number of the Beast.
So, on this 42nd day of the Trump Presidency, the numbers suggest that Satan may be driving the current Administration’s positions relating to Cannabis. It implies the possibility that we are approaching the end of days. It also suggests that SNL’s portrayal of Mr. Bannon may well be spot-on.
In any case, it certainly seems to explain a lot of what we have been seeing out of the other Washington recently.
After 42 days, we are 2.874% through the first term of the Trump Presidency (assuming that he goes full-term). We are almost 1/34th of the way through this flirtation with inanity. America is strong — it will survive.
Personally, I’ll only get worried if I see all of the mice disappearing (Mr. Adams taught me to always pay attention to them while prognosticating). Let’s hope that they do not take their leave of us. I, for one, will be putting cheese out for them periodically over the next 1,419 days. I understand they also like Cannabis, but sharing is illegal in Washington, so I won’t be going there. The risk-takers among you may wish to do otherwise.
In the meanwhile, regardless of it’s new provenance, thank goodness for 420 … and if you are feeling increasing levels of unease, remember that 4/20 is only 48 days away. By another freak of coincidence, 48% is almost the average level of THC being reported out of Bellingham these days …. But that is another story.
Check out HI-Blog in the near future for just that story –tentatively titled “How best to achieve PEAK levels of cannabinoids in your Washington State-legal Cannabis products while presumably minimizing your chances of a QA failure”.
Oh Jim, the twists and turns of your line of thinking. I’ll definitely be waiting for the 48% THC story.
Grandma – I hope you are well and that you have been nurturing little Torchy since I met the little gal down in Santa Clara. As you may have noticed in some posts I put out in the last few weeks (and in Tobias’ recent Leafly article) I attempted to shed light on the potency issue we’ve discussed. As for the “scary high” potencies (well beyond the averages recently reported by Peak) numbers. … how about we get together, you can reintroduce me to Torchy, I’ll walk you thru some fascinating data, we can share a good guffaw, and then each get home without driving. You on?