It’s 101

If my count is correct, the last entry in this blog was number 100. Both you faithful readers will remember that this is the second generation of my blog — the first one (“In My Own Write”) was closed out some time back and I started over with a simplified format. Anyhow, the fact that I’ve now updated it 100 times says something — I have no idea what, but it’s probably something like I can still write a lot of words about nothing.

But 100 is a cool number. We all wanted to get 100 on our homework when in school. The Today Show honors people that have lived to be 100 every week. It seems to indicate a fullness or completeness.

100 degrees on the Celsius scale is the boiling point of water (at sea level.) 100 kilometers is generally considered to be how high the Earth’s atmosphere is (the Karman line is the line above sea level and is generally considered the boundary between our atmosphere and outer space.

100 is the number of years in a century and we have 100 U.S. Senators, there are 100 tiles in a Scrabble game (at least the English version) and the first hundred days of the President’s term is used as a benchmark for his accomplishments.

In many countries 100 is the telephone number for emergencies — in England, dialing 100 will get you the operator.

There are 100 yards on a football field and it’s the minimum distance for a Par 3 hole on a golf course.

The first gulf war, under President H.W. Bush, lasted 100 days. The second reign of Napoleon lasted 100 days — ended by his defeat at Waterloo. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. An ant can lift 100 times its own weight.

The Bible mentions lots of number lots of times, but the number 100 is used 95 times. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.

Often times we just use a hundred to mean “a lot.” So I’ve written in this blog a lot and here we are on entry number 101 – that’s a lot too, but because of its lack of “roundness,” it seems more precise. So when we reach 101 it’s kind of like a fresh start — the first day of every new year starts on 1/01 and usually when we say something is 101 it means the beginning, like a beginner’s or introductory course — that’s the number invariably given to the first course in each field of study in universities.

So here’s to not necessarily a new beginning but maybe a fresh start for a lot more of nothing….
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