From: "Tim" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Zero Vector Target Approached - T Bonds
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 14:38:39 +0000 (UTC)

> > "GSV Three Minds in a Can" wrote
> >> Ah, but can YOU explain why the Brits show
> >> their dates with least significant item first, ...
> >
> Tim wrote:
> > Perhaps it's because we all know the
> > current year, so the more interesting bit
> > is often that least significant item (day)?
>
"Ronald Raygun" wrote
> Who's to say the more interesting
> or important bit should come first?

Good presentation, I guess.
If the viewer/listener is prone to falling asleep from boredom part-way
through, it's better to have got the more interesting bit in first!

"Ronald Raygun" wrote
> It often comes last, as in "Come here NOW!".

I'd rather say that the more important bit is *first* there already - if
someone just said "NOW" then you wouldn't know what they wanted, yet if they
just said "Come (here)" then you would know what they wanted, and quite
possibly do it straight away anyway!

"Ronald Raygun" wrote
> but no more so than the archaic "part the third".

Is that a Scottish saying?

> > "GSV Three Minds in a Can" wrote
> >> ... but with most significant digit leading??
> >
> Tim wrote:
> > That's obvious - do you know of *any*
> > language/terminology that shows higher units after
> > smaller units when writing a number anywhere?
>
"Ronald Raygun" wrote
> Does "four and twenty blackbirds" count?

Is that a *modern* construction?