Everyone has a "favorite" number. We have lucky 7, unlucky 13. We have special numbers like birthdays that have additional meanings for us. If we see a sequence like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 we automatically fill in 6 as the next number. We spot patterns on cards like 3 of a kind. We give names to sequences like 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace with matching patterns as Royal Flush. Humans really like numbers. We may complain we can't do maths but we like numbers.
We can spot discounts even when they aren't advertised and we like to find the best bargains too. Shopping for baked beans, I spotted an "in-store discount" price and stocked up. We keep running tabs in our heads about the prices of bread, milk and many goods. We like numbers and we hang on to a lot of them.
We use numbers to communicate context and emotional states. "Billions and Billions", "Buck stops here", "Penny for your thoughts", "Feel like a million" and lots of other phrases have numbers in them.
Numbers can have positive or negative connotations. Being "Number One" is different than "Third Place". There has been a lot written about the emotional fall-out of Olympic Medal rounds, where a Silver Medal Second Place is interpreted as "First Loser".
We like big numbers too, but not too big. 100 is a nice number. 1,000,000,000 isn't. Too many zeros. We really cannot "comprehend" 100 of something unless you spill 100 pennies on the table. It's our number version of "big". "There must have been a hundred of them..." when it might have been thousands but 100 gets the concept across.
"Cast of thousands" tips the scales against "Cast of Hundreds". We may not calculate the exact differences but we understand the magnitude of difference.
Clothing and Fashion houses learned long ago that women are very sensitive to numbers. Women like small numbers and do not like 2 digit ones. Fashion houses size women's clothing different from mens. Very thin women wear sizes in 1 digit numbers: size 3 is very popular. Slightly bigger and you get to size 12. Moving upwards you get to 16 and the 2 digit discomfort zone increases as you move to the higher 20's. It is a number that indicates how much cloth it takes to wrap your body but it's also a social issue both positive and negative. There is a stigma in having a 2 digit high 20s number. It was such a problem that long ago, Fashion houses shifted their numbering downwards. A size 12 today isn't the same as the old size 12.
Men may not be as sensitive to sizing but I recall an Uncle declaiming he wore the same size jeans as he did in high school. I looked at his mid-line hanging over the pants that were buckeled low, before low rider pants became fashionable. I figured he might have been a bit more comfortable with pants 4 sizes bigger than the one he was squeezed into.
Shoes are an odd sort of number too. Now most shoes have several sets of numbers: American and European. The Euro number is a lot more accurate about how it fits on your foot but we don't like numbers like 38, 39, 40, 41, 42. We like size 7. Our feet may complain but don't bring out those size 9s that might be more comfortable.
I've been wearing the same set of barn jeans for so long, I've forgotten when I bought them. They are still in good shape, a bit frayed at the ankle. They don't have any holes in the knees or seat, even though holes in jeans are fashionable and you pay extra for the holes. The denim has faded to a light blue and washed to a soft texture. They are quite comfortable.
There is a problem of sorts, since I bought them long ago, I have lost a good bit of weight. I've added a belt and at times I looked like Li'l Abner1 trying to hold them up. My friends began to tactfully suggest it WAS TIME to buy some new jeans. I ignored the subtle hints and the stronger ones too but I finally decided they had a point and made plans to buy new ones.
Since I hadn't bought new jeans in a long time I wasn't sure what size I should look for. These are barn jeans and I buy men's jeans because they are sturdy and last. It's a barn and strudy is important. I'm not so interested in sequins decorating my butt as making sure the knees don't rip out while getting on/off of Duke.
So I did some shopping and looking and pricing. There are the $100, $60, $40 pants. All very good I'm sure. I did more stopping and looking. At last came the after-holiday sales at Costco and I pounced on the $16 jeans they had on the tables, and picked up 2 pairs. I made the best guess at what size hoping I didn't have to do a return. 16 is a way better number than 100.
At home I try them on and they fit GREAT. WOW! Home Run on the First Try!
So I begin to consider that maybe I should get 1 more pair for rotation. Seemed like a good idea. With stuff at Costco you can't wait too long 'cause they change their stock often. So I headed over and picked up another pair, same size.
Except when I try them on they seem... a bit tight... oh? I look at the size: check, I look at th style: check. Something's not quite right. I compare the new one to the other ones and sure enough they are not the same. 2 alike. 1 different. Bad numbers.
An interesting emotional reaction began rolling though my mind. I had bought ASize. Are the 2 pants that are comfortable ASizeBigger? Is the smaller one ASizeSmaller. It was rather interesting that I was concerned that the comfortable pants might have a bigger number! Oh MY! Catastrophe! My self esteem began to sink a bit even considering the possiblity I needed a bigger pair.
I pulled myself together and mentally encouraged myself that it was just a number and it didn't matter (although it did), and that I'd better get a move on to the store or I wouldn't be able to get that 3d pair I wanted.
There was another problem to solve and that was how to make sure the next pair I got would be the same as the 2 comfortable ones? It was clear that one was smaller but they all were marked ASize. Someone messed up the labeling.
What to do Percy?
I got out the tape measure. I started measuring the pants and comparing the numbers. A bit like Olivander measuring Harry Potter for a wand. A to B. A to E. E to F. After a bunch of measurements I decided that the target number I wanted was 18: the distance from the left to right seam. It's not a size, it's a measurement from my carpenter's tape measure (with spring loaded retraction!), and headed to the store to do the exchange.
So, I'm standing at the pile of jeans and start pulling out and measuring them. I'm running my tape measure hither and yon checking all the lines and diagonals. Comparing pants with different tags, I find that a fair few are definitely mislabeled. Some of the smaller sized are marked as a bigger size. I pick out a pair that matches my target number: 18.
I noticed that my anxiety began to fade immediately when I confirmed my "comfortable" jeans were correctly sized and that I didn't need ASizeLarger. I was TheRightSize all along.
It was probably at that point that I realized, if you double the target number you get the waist size.
They fit just like the others do. First Class.
References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%27l_Abner
Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA. Written and drawn by Al Capp (1909–1979), the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through November 13, 1977
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