Fun_People Archive
23 Dec
H to He

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 99 16:46:04 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: H to He

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[From a discussion of strange license plates...  -psl]

Drew Bell said:

> Avram said:

> > On the way out of a Cashmas party in Pleasantville, NY last night, I saw
> > that one of the cars parked outside had New Jersey plates reading "H TO
> > HE".  I didn't quiz people as to their jobs, but it wouldn't surprise me
> > a bit to find that someone who works at, say, the Princeton fusion
> > lab was in attendence.

> I, being my father's son, and having spent countless hours in the car with
> him listening to classic rock, immediately read "Highway to Hell". Finding
> a fusion expert who digs AC/DC would most certainly rock.

    I'm not sure what my excuse could possibly be, but my first reaction was  
"That dictionary (encyclopedia) must have fifty or sixty volumes to have a  
whole volume for 'H to He'!"
    Let's see... my 1078-page Random House "Family Encyclopedia" has 24  
pages for H (Haakon IV Kaakonsson) through He (Hezekiah), so, by  
extrapolation, that "H to He" would be from a 45-volume encyclopedia.
    On the other hand, my compact OED devotes 66 pages for H (H) through He  
(Heyward) out of 3872 pages of regular entries, implying the "H to He" volume  
would be from a 59-volume dictionary.
    Of course, finding a fusion expert who digs AC/DC and has a favorite  
volume of a sixty-volume dictionary would be WAY too much to ask...

Peter

© 1999 Peter Langston