There was a young girl from Astoria
Who went on a date one fine day
She gave her young beau much euphoria
By blowing his cobwebs away
Make of that what you will. I haven't a clue what to make of it. It dropped into my head ready written while I was looking at a picture of the Persian who introduced Europe to Hindi numerals (which Europeans henceforth called 'Arabic numerals.') Apparently they were banned in Europe during a part of the Middle Ages because, although they were far more functional than the daft letter symbols used by dumb Romans (not least because they included the number 0 which nobody else had ever thought of doing), they also made it easier for crooked merchants to cheat.
'Got your stylus handy, Vincenzio?'
'I have, Lothario.'
'Well get hold of Antonio's clay tablet - the one with the promissory note written on it - and add a couple of them nought things to it. He won't notice.'
So now I'm wondering why everybody who was anybody in Mediaeval Europe had names ending with 'o'. Do you think it might have had something to do with Arabic numerals?
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