Jonah:

On the pickled-genitals thread (surely not our first?): There are many, many old Peking street stories about eunuchs. In the last dynasty, right into the 20th century, being a palace eunuch was a much-prized job — lifetime security, great bennies, mucho influence with powerful ladies (i.e. job opportunities, not necessarily requiring radical surgery, for family, er, members). When there were hiring calls, guys would line up round the block. The palace had a team of skilled castrators on hand to do the necessary. “Did they take off . . . the whole lot?” I asked my informant. Yes they did, the whole lot. With scissors. There wasn’t even a warm bath, as in that Anne Rice novel. (Or am I thinking of that Mary Renault novel? Not that I’m an expert on literary castrations, please understand.)

On your numerology plea: I covered some of the ground at the end of this one. It’s awful, and ominous, that we’re getting so used to the word “trillion,” and so fast.

It is, though, somewhat consoling to a Brit-raised observer that these are American trillions, not British ones. In the older Brit usage, a billion was a million million (i.e. a U.S. trillion), while a trillion was a million million million, which would be a U.S. quintillion. The Brit usage actually made more sense — look at the “bi-” and “tri-” there — but like the dear old Empire, I’m afraid it’s now at one with Nineveh and Tyre.

The way things are going, we may as well just throw up our hands and switch to scientific notation, with a trillion as 1e12, a quadrillion at 1e15, and so on. Everyone will soon get used to it. We can practice doing conversions while waiting in line for one of those jobs at the palace.