One Thousand, Ten Hundred, A Thousand Ones

If you counted from one to one thousand in the classic, little-kid “number+Mississippi” way, it would take you roughly sixteen minutes and 40 seconds. If you built a giant staircase with a thousand steps, with each step going up exactly one foot, you’d nearly be at the top of the Chrysler Building in New York City by the time you reached the top. If you got in your car and drove straight from Laurel, Maryland, to Laurel, Mississippi, taking I-85 most of the way, you’d travel exactly 1000 miles and arrive about 15 hours and 9 minutes later (going the posted speed limits and not stopping for gas or the bathroom, of course).

If you could somehow eat 1000 large navel oranges, you’d ingest ~8700 milligrams of Vitamin C or 96 times the recommended daily intake for an adult. If you ate a single Caramel Frosty Shake from Wendy’s, you’d be 1000 calories in the negative. If you drank 1000 milliliters of good beer, you’d be pretty happy with yourself. If you drank 1000 milliliters of bad beer quickly, you’d probably still be pretty happy with yourself.

If you wrote a thousand words, it would take you about two hours, on average. If you read a thousand words, it would take you about 4 minutes, on average. If you wrote out all the numbers, long hand, from one to one thousand, you’d end up with 2835 words (with hyphenated numbers counting as one word).

And if you were me, you woke up to see this on your WordPress dashboard:

I am truly humbled. The idea that 1000 people (or the population of Clay City, Illinois) would voluntarily sign up to read the things I write makes me one very contented writer. Thank you a thousand times to all one thousand of you (and everyone else who isn’t officially in that count). Here’s to the next thousand words, the next thousand days, the next thousand stories and the next thousand thousand.