Hello, all you fine upstanding Mortals!! 43327 speaking to you. As usual it is a golden time here in the Ideal, and we are all feeling rather fat and sassy having welcomed 2012 in in good form.

I wanted to speak to you about this whole "dibs" concept. You may have a misunderstanding about what we Numbers are. You may think we are simply human artifacts, conveniences to be used when needed to hold a place or keep a count, or keep track of something, and then to be ignored when no longer needed.

In this respect you are badly mistaken, if this is your notion. A Number is not a scrap of pragmatic servomechanism, but an Ideal Form serving the Infinite Capacity for Comparison and Differentiation. As an Ideal Form we are called upon to do almost everything from shaping circles to calculating the angles of rotation of the planets to measuring the babble of every brook, the decibels of each windsong, the brightness and incident of every beam of sunlight and moonlight--it's absoultely uncountable the diffferent services we pure Numbers serve in the ongoing regeneration of All the Universes.

So, given all that, it is a bit plebian of Rapparee to assert that he can claim one of us for his own purposes on some whim, or stroke of laziness, and I can only assure him that that is not how things work when you are dealing with Us. We require respect, courtesy, accuracy, precision and correctness in our dealings; nothing less will serve. The Numbers will tell, Rapparree, and we are always happy to be of service in all aspects your endeavours when the occasion warrants. But we will not be bullied or low-browed into submission, let us be perfectly clear about that.

Take fair warning, so that you do not find yourself cut off altogether from the ideal, unable to tell a circle from a triangle, and bereft of bank balances, body-mass indexes, and automobile speed. Woe to him who casts off the world of Numbers!