What If There Was No Zero?

          Did you know that there is no Roman numeral for zero?  Zero wasn’t even considered until it was put forward by Western mathematics.

          Well, I, for one, was aghast. How could they not have zero? What did they call it when they ran out of cookies? Or money?  Did they just stop speaking and writing?

          So, I looked it up, and I must tell you, the answer was not very satisfying. Experts say their additive system was for the business of pricing and trading goods. What—are you telling me no one ever got cheated and was down to zero? Or had zero goods left to sell?

How could you even have a decimal system, algebra, or calculus? How could scientists measure anything? How could computer science even have been invented?

          Guess when else you get zero answers? When you search “common uses of zero.”  You get a list of grammar sites that describe the Zero Article in English. These are times when we don’t use A, An, or The.  And they are super obvious, not worth having a huge explanation. (We don’t use them when we say college, winter, today, midnight, and probably hundreds of other times we omit articles.)

          So, not only was the poor little zero ignored by the Romans, but by today’s entire computer system as well.     

          And, for this, I give both of them a big, fat ZERO.

However, I will give you 100% if you join 10K of my subscribers, on my Youtube Mom Channel, filled with fabulous, short life hacks.

A Diller A Dollar

            Many of you hold a cherished spot in my heart, because you are readers of my books and attenders of my plays.  May you live long, happy lives and may the Bluebird of Happiness nest in your trees, but never poop on your head.  Or your car.

           

 Meanwhile, I shall gratefully cash royalty checks. I hope. 

            Unless there’s a problem.  Such as the snag that recently surfaced when I tried to cash a check for 75 cents.  Yes, this is such a tiny amount that there is no “cents” sign on the keyboard, so I have to spell it out. 

            It is also such a tiny amount that PayPal will not deposit it into my bank.  Nope, it will sit on its teeny little haunches, all three quarters stacked up like a little order of pancakes for a fairy, and it will wait.

            If ever this publisher sells more of my products, it might—MIGHT! (I can pray)—tip the scale over an entire humongous dollar, and then PayPal will release the ransom to my bank. And so it sits, my money, like a dog in quarantine awaiting release to its master. 

            How quietly can you whisper, ka-ching?

             Imagine the joy, the elation, you could feel (and the power!) if you were the person to launch my little coins into the air and push the total over the 100 penny mark!  Your chance at heroism awaits at jonihilton.com, where you can subscribe to my YouTube Mom videos, and buy my books and at least one of my plays.  Thank you from the bottom of my grateful heart.