"and" in numerical expressions

[David Bowie]

From:    "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> At 5/13/2009 03:04 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>Joel S. Berson(?) wrote:

>>> I do this without "and"s:
>>> One hippopotamus
>>> Two hippopotamus
>>> Three hippopotamus
>>> Etc.

>> Hmmm.  We always did it with "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi,...",
>> which like "one thousand and one" has 5 syllables.  But "one
>> hippopotamus" has 6.  Did you just say it more quickly?  Sure it
>> wasn't "One rhinoceros, two rhinoceros,..."?

> (Seven rhinoceros has 6 syllables, though. Let alone the teens.)

> I think the hippopotamus notion (wasn't he a Greek philosopher? Or am
> I mixing this up with Euclid?) was that one said it as fast as one
> can, and people generally could say it at the same speed, whereas
> with other mantras people could speak them at various speeds.  How
> true this is I have no idea.  Also, I don't have any association with
> rhinoceri.

I grew up with Mississippi as the time-filler of choice. It was most
usually used in games of tag football[1] after church, when everyone
would agree on a particular time lag (usually 3-Mississippi or
5-Mississippi) from the snap before the quarterback could be rushed. The
person (usually just one--there was no offensive line, these were games
with usually between four and seven on a team) doing the rushing tried
to count off as quickly as possible, but wasn't allowed to skip
syllables (i.e., no 1-Miss'ippi, 2-Miss'ippi).

The quarterback also wasn't allowed to scramble unless rushed, which
actually added a bit of strategy to the defense's plans.

[1] You know, if i'd thought about it a while before typing i'd've
called it "touch football", but this is what came out naturally. Go figure.

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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