With all of the comparisons between myself and the lead character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I decided to re-read the book yesterday, particularly given the iffy weather that has hit us this weekend. Below are the similarities, fewer than I'd imagined given the ribbing I've received.
- He knows all prime numbers up to and including 7,057. My limit is 100. Well, 97 actually
- "I like prime numbers." Me too, Christopher
- "Prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them." I agree, and this is one of the properties that makes them so special
- Christopher's dad goes up stairs two at a time. At school, I used to know how many steps their were in each set, across the entire school. I too took steps two at a time. However, when I went up a set of stairs (and sometimes, but not always, on the way down), I had to finish with my right foot. So if there were 4n steps in the flight, then I would start with a double-step with my left foot. If there were 4n-1 steps, I'd start with a single step with my left; 4n-2, I'd start with a double-step with my right foot; 4n-3, single step with my right. If I did that, then I ensured that by taking the rest of the steps two at a time, I hit the top with my right foot on a double-step. For some reason, my favourites were 4n-1 (usually 15)
- In the book, he refers to a system where he assigns each letter of the alphabet a number (A=1, B=2, ... , Y=25, Z=26). He then calculates a number for people's names by adding up the associated numbers. Jesus Christ (151), Scooby-Doo (113), Sherlock Holmes (163) and Doctor Watson (167) all result in primes. So does my full name (211)
- His love of the Monty Hall problem is shared by me
- When he gets uncomfortable, he calculates 2^n as far as he can go, in his head. His best effort was 2^45, but on this occasion he only got to 2^25 = 33,554,432. I used to do this too. My best effort in my head was 2^20 which is 1,048,576. On paper, I once went up to 2^100 and then came back down to 2. I remember hitting the number 33,554,432 as it seemed so regular
- He refers to seemingly random markings on London Underground trains, specifically the abbreviations BRV and Con. IC on the Bakerloo line. I remember these too - Con. IC appears on a stainless steel plate up by the air vents, if I remember rightly. I always wondered what they stood for.
They're the only similarities.
