Ask Wednesday: How can I know what day it is?

Use a memory device

By Morris Dean

Today's Q & A follows up on previous columns about calendar patterns. On May 15, for example, we explained in verse why we need only fourteen calendars.
    Thanks to the anonymous person who provided today's questions. [His or her questions are set in italics.]

How can I know the day of the week a date falls on?
    You can use a mnemonic device for calculating the day in your head.

What do you mean by a "device"?
    I mean a string of words selected to represent the date that each month's first Sunday falls on.

Sunday? Why Sunday?
    Simply because our usual calendar shows Sunday as the first day of the week, left to right.

Oh, right—
    For the current year—2013—here are the dates for each month's first Sunday:

1st Q	2nd Q	3rd Q	4th Q
6-3-3	7-5-2	7-4-1	6-3-1

I thought you said months. What's "1st Q"?
    Come on! First quarter! You know the months of the quarters!

Uh, right—January, February, March, then April, May, June, then—
    You've got it. So, in what month does the first Sunday fall on the fourth day? Look at the table!

Um, August—this month! And today's the 7th, three days past Sunday.
    Right!

Okay, so...how do I use the table?
    Think about it a minute—don't you see?

[silence for almost a minute, then a curl of the lips] Of course! If someone suggests we meet on September 1, October 6, November 3, or December 1, I know immediately he wants to meet on a Sunday.
    [laughs] Well, yes, that would be one use. But take a date further into a month.

Okay...September 17....
    How many days is that beyond September's first Sunday, on the 1st?

Um, 16 days...two weeks plus two days....
    So, the two weeks takes you to...?

To the third Sunday....
    Plus two, which takes you to...?

Tuesday!
    Very good! You've got it! Now, close your eyes and do the same thing for October 15. October's first Sunday is the 6th day.

[eyes closed]. Okay. The 15th is nine days after the 6th. That's one week, plus two days. Tuesday again!
    Right. Very good!

But when we started out, you said that the device was "a string of words." I guess it's time to get into that?
    Nothing wrong with your memory! And you're quite right. We're ready for that now.
    Dates and days of the week are numerical. For most people, words are easier to remember, so words are selected to represent the date that each month's first Sunday falls on. The selection works better if the words can form a sentence.
    But there's a little groundwork we need to do first. I'm going to teach you a verbal coding technique for representing a number as a word, phrase, or sentence.

Please give me an example.
    Okay. Take the area code 519. I could represent that by any of the following phrases, to name just a few: laid up, load up, lit up, low top, low tub, late hop, haul tub.
    Can you see a pattern?

Well, except for "haul tub," they all start with the letter ell. The letters dee and tee seem interchangeable. And maybe the letters bee and pee? And there's something similar about the sound of each letter in the two pairs.
    Good! I think I can now safely introduce the codes I use for the ten digits 0 through 9. I represent each of them by a consonant (or cluster of similar constants, based on how they're vocalized):
    0 - s, z
    1 - d, t
    2 - n
    3 - m
    4 - r
    5 - l
    6 - ch, sh, j, soft-g
    7 - c, k, hard-g
    8 - f, v
    9 - b, p

[silently sounds out the letters for a couple of minutes] Oh, I see! I have to move my mouth very similarly for the sounds s and z; for d and t; for ch, sh, j, and soft-g; and so on.
    Very good! And you can throw in vowels and unvocalized h and w as needed to make up words. Commit the associations to memory, so it's second nature. Practice converting zip codes to words, street numbers, telephone numbers....

I think I can see where you're headed—to make up a string of memorable words for the first-Sunday numbers for 2013:

6-3-3

7-5-2

7-4-1

6-3-1

    Exactly! Of course, I've already made the ones I use. And here they are:

Gym ma

cleans

court

gymette.

    It's purposely a sentence—an odd one, but all the more memorable for it. Learn it by rote until it's embedded in your memory.

Wait! Why two words for the first quarter, but only one word for the other quarters?
    That has to do with leap years, as discussed on May 15. But I think we've had enough for today, don't you? Catch you next time.
    But, until then, commit to memory the associations of consonants to digits:
    0 - s, z
    1 - d, t
    2 - n
    3 - m
    4 - r
    5 - l
    6 - ch, sh, j, soft-g
    7 - c, k, hard-g
    8 - f, v
    9 - b, p
And the sentence for 2013:

Gym ma

cleans

court

gymette.

[Note that the s in "cleans" doesn't mean 0—we don't use the digits 0, 8, and 9 in the calendar mnemonic. I threw the s in for grammar.]
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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