A Myriad Thanks

I achieved a milestone this week. Not a big milestone as milestones go but a milestone nonetheless. Perhaps that should be a 1.609344 kilometre-stone in these time of metric nonsense or even an 880fathom-stone for the diving fraternity? It matters not in the general scheme of things but you are undoubtedly agog at the cause of all this excitement..................?

Well, if you let your eyes travel down the left side of my blog, past the profile and the picture of the rather dashing chap relaxing with a bottle of Bud, you will see a counter which has reached the figure of 10,000! In other words, there have now been that many visitors to the blog. It sounds pretty ace although my stats show a lot of those merely got here through Googling a certain word or phrase and stopped for about 3 nanoseconds when they realised I was not quite what they wanted..........but stop they did. I tend not to leave lots of keywords and things to increase the hit figure as I would rather be small and discreet with an air of sophisticated quality (rather like a Gucci version of Tena); after all, to quote Disraeli, "lies, damned lies and statistics".

When I first started this blogging lark, some 2 years and 131 blogs ago, little did I think.................and I still don't. The words that appear are a spontaneous reaction between keyboard and fingers with absolutely no interference from the brain whatsoever! I regret none of my blogs although there have been a few disappointments along the way. For example, I don't think I have ever used "callipygian ", which is rather a nice word (and an even nicer meaning), my flying exploits haven't caught the attention of the Red Arrows, my humour has not tickled the humeri of such comedy legends as Cleese, Connolly or Carrott (unless, of course, they are too in awe to contact me), I haven't even reached the first step on the road to fame by getting invited onto 'I'm a Celebrity'!

Having said that, I have a merry band of very loyal readers and to them I offer my heartfelt thanks.. Some I know, some I know of and some I am just aware that they read my blog fairly regularly. I have a new little widget on the blog now which shows people who actually follow the blog; strangely enough, it's called Followers. At the moment, it has just the one follower (hello Mermaid632 :)) but I assume it can cater for more so feel free to come out of the closet, so to speak.

10,000 has an almost mystic significance in several civilisations. In ancient times it was used as a symbol for the number that followed 9,999 as well as (strangely enough) the one which precedes 10,001 whereas in Papuan folklore it symbolises great wealth and literally translates into "Cripes, he's got more bush pigs than there are missionaries in the cooking pot). The Patagonians of the past worshipped the great God IOOOO whereas the England cricket team view it as 100 innings'.

Other exciting facts about 10,000:

• A myriad is specifically defined as 10,000
• In scientific terms, it is written as 10⁴
• It is the square of 100
• It's the square root of 100,000,000
• A myriagon is a polygon with 10,000 sides (no doubt, Blue Peter will show you how to make one if you supply enough egg boxes)
  
• In anatomy, each neuron in the human brain is estimated to contain 10,000 others
• Land of 10,000 Lakes is the nickname for the state of Minnesota
• 10,000 square metres is one hectare
• In zoology, there are approximately 10,000 species of birds
• In currency, the new Iraqi 10,000 dinar notes has a portrait of Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham on the front, the Japanese 10,000 yen has a picture of Fukuzawa Yukichi and the US $10,000, a portrait of Salmon P Chase

• In films, titles include 10,000 B.C. (2008), 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1956) and Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War (1980)
• In games, each of the nine Mahjong character suit tiles (1 to 9) represents ten thousand (wan) coins. Ten Thousand Year Ko is a one of the rules of ko in the board game of Go and Ten Thousand is one name of a dice game that is also called Farkle
• In music, 10,000 Men is a song by Bob Dylan
• In sports, 10,000 metres is approximately 9,975 metres more than I like to run

Well, that was all jolly exciting wasn't it? No doubt you all want to rush off and pass on these little nuggets to others so I will say a fond farewell for the moment.

Once again, appreciation to all of you. Should you have stumbled upon this due to Googling "polygon with 10,000 sides", feel free to stay awhile and immerse yourself in this cornucopiea of nonsense and whimsy.

Oh, and finally, today's challenge - betcha can't fit callipygian into a conversation!