B E B E R E

Beasting Barney

Anna made me giggle with this little bit of email fun:

Given: CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR
U -> V: CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
Roman #’s: C V V L D I V
Arabic #’s: 100 5 5 50 500 1 5
Total: 666
Therefore: Barney is the Devil
(or not)

I guess it's proof positive that either Barney IS the antichrist, or that if you take anything far enough out of context, you can relate it to whatever you like.

This practice of twisting numbers or letters around to find "666" is called "beasting," I've learned, and was coined by Martin Gardner, a wonderful puzzler and full-time skeptic.