A colleague from my department sent around an electronic-mail message he had just received from a friend of his to the effect that today’s date is the first since August 28, 888, in which there is not a single odd number. “Incredible but true,” his friend concluded modestly. God only knows how many people had been thus enlightened on this very day. No-one will ever check this atom of pointless wisdom, of course, and it may establish itself as true regardless of how things actually stand. God bless the Internet!