Adding up and taking away

Scary maths

This was BLISS on large numbers:

“I don't do zeros”.

All maths, at basic level, apparently, is adding up and taking away.

Multiplication and division are just repeatedly adding and subtracting. Three time four is just 4 + 4 + 4.

Twelve divided by four is 12 – 4 = 8; and 8 – 4 = 4; and 4 – 4 = 0...three times, nothing left over.

She has adopted decimal currency. Of the two of us, I'm more likely to say “thirty bob” instead of £1.50. She does not have the betting shop background so does not do money slang, either: grands, and quids, yes. Monkies, ponies, bullseyes, not so much. She'd probably score about 50% if tested on: Lady Godiva, Nelson Eddies, an Ayrton, Mother, Jacks, Tom, an Archer, Carpet, or Rio.

She refuses to take on any other form of metrication. No end of:

“Look, metre, yards, there's no huge difference.”

or

“1 kilo is a bag of sugar, 2.2 lbs.”

changes anything. If I ask her to measure something, she'll respond in feet and inches.

At the other end of the scale, there's those blackboards crammed with tiny writing used to land small mobile laboratories on asteroids.

Money, accounting and economics is well and truly at the easy end of the scale. All you can do with pounds, dollars, yen, is add to, or take away from the stash held. If it is made in any way shape or form complicated or rocket-science-like, it can only be for purposes of obfuscation and confusion.

I'm not sure about DLL either, who “prefers telling digital time”. The kitchen clock (Roman numerals) “doesn't even have proper numbers on it” rendering it tricksy to the point of uselessness. I tend to agree with her there. I don't see the point of using those Latin phrases lawyers love. We have a perfectly functional modern language, use it. Unless it's an admission of more of that confusion and obfuscation. An admission ticket to pseuds' corner is what it should be. I can do those numerals up to eighteen or so, then lose the will to live as they introduce letters other than X and V. Always been bit of a drawback with cryptic crosswords, that.

The modern divide, I suppose, is between the spreadsheet-phobic and the spreadsheetphiles. I asked why, when they go off to contractors who then need to put costs against each item, why standard specification templates were in Word format. At more than one practice the answer has been “because [insert secretary in charge of templates name here] isn't very good with excel”. I'd not employ a chippie who was tapping nails in with a screwdriver because he's not very good with hammers.

Give BLISS a thousand, and she'll take a million. Or ten. Whatever. Too many meaningless noughts to faff about with.