On birthday candles.

[xiphias]

It is my considered opinion that, after a certain age, one should stop doing birthday candles on one's cake in base one -- that is, one candle per year -- and start using binary.

I suggest sixteen as the cutoff point. Up to age sixteen, you can have one candle per year. On your seventeenth birthday, you will have five candles, with only the first and last candles lit. In this manner, even Methuselah would only have required ten candles, had birthday cakes been an antediluvian tradition.

Comments

burning down the house

[(Anonymous)]

I told you about the time Joanna and I burt down the house trying to light Kent's b-day cake, right? It was his 40th birthday and all the candles wouldn't fit on the top of the cake, so we put them on the side of the cake. It wasn't a bad idea, until we tried to carry it... with wax dripping down the sides. The smoke alarm started going off and Jo started screaming because of the noise and b/c of the hot wax on her arms. Luckly, Kent came running into the room just in time to see a big ball of fire falling out of our hands. He actually blew out ALL of the candles before it hit the ground. Kinda impressive, but he did get a running start... So I guess the house didn't really burn down, but it was funny!

Re: burning down the house

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Presumably, his wish was, "Please, God, don't let the house burn down. . . "