Some time ago I was talking to some young people on Facebook about philosophy and I mentioned that the answer to everything was "42, but what is the question". One of the guys in this group replied "What is 6x9" Needless to say I laughed! Then he pointed out that according to "Base 13" that was the right answer. To which I said, "Unlucky for some".

     I had heard of "The Base Method" before. On "The Cosby Show" Vanessa tried to explain it to Dr. Huxtable, but he understood it about as well as I did, and still don't. My sister in law talked about "new math" at the Hyde County School. I asked if 2+2=5 still, and my niece Shelby, who was just starting school said "2+2 isn't 5!, and I thought it was the end of the discussion.

     Then I heard something about "order of operations"on Facebook. I actually had to Google that, but understood only some of what I had a vague recollection of in high school algebra. I'm glad to know that I'll never have to know that for any useful purpose I serve on Earth.

     Mathematics, to me, was always absolute. 2+2=4, not 5 as I tried to convince my Shelby pal. Bt what if there is a base method to make it 5 instead of 4. As for order of operations, I'll go from left to right like I always do! Math is the one subject I could always count on where there was only one right answer. It would appear I gave up academe at just the right time!