letter

M’s not ‘million’

Posted

I am no nit-picker— please!,

but I’ll politely ask you to believe

in a recent Jewish Star issue

I saw: no — not a “tissue 

of inconsequential lies,”

but an assumption  [surprise!] 

that ‘m’ can stand for a million.

But, contrary to what thou hast hinted,

we thousands [?] who protest what you printed. 

Our hands on our hips, 

[please read our lips],

thou sendeth thereby some false data.

And I’ll swear it at my cotillion.

[Let’s hear it for roman numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, M, roughly.

Perhaps in Roman times, a thousand was enoughly.]

An ardent Jewish Star fan, humble-ex-proofreader, and erstwhile quasi-[queasy]-poet,


—Carol Rogovin

The errant M appeared in a headline in our July 14 edition. —Editor