Happy half-birthday!

That's right, kids, today is my "half-birthday," I'm halfway between XLVII and XLVIII. I understand the Romans used S to designate "semis" or VI/XII. Curious fellows, those Romans, they used base X (decimal) for whole numbers, but base XII (duodecimal) for fractions. Probably because it is easy to divide XI by III and IV. Works great for XII month calendars, since VI/XII is halfway. So I'm XLVII S today. Normally, I would take this occasion to celebrate, or conjure up some fun association with the 13th of May, and get completely involved in some silly self-indulgence. But today is Mother's Day. Now I know that Mother's Day is an insidious marketing scheme created by florists and kept alive by greeting card and telephone companies, but it is hard to be too curmudgeonly about that. After all, we are talking MOM here. You don't mess with moms. Happy Mother's Day, Peggy-O, and likewise to all the other moms in the world.