Two Dozen LeMoyne Stars

 

For the 2018 Olympic games in Pyeongchang, the Norwegians tried to order 1,500 eggs. (That seems reasonable. They were feeding 109 hungry athletes. We go through 18 to 24 eggs weekly, and there are only three of us.) When their order arrived, they received 15,000 eggs. (I’m trying to wrap my head around this. How much space do 15,000 eggs take up? Would delivery require more than one refrigerated truck? What would 15,000 eggs cost?) Korean numbers are confusing. Most of the world uses Arabic numbers and a base 10 numbering system. If we want ten times as much of something, we add an extra zero. But Korea uses two systems: Native Korean for general counting, and Sino-Korean for dates, money, addresses and numbers 100 and above. I’m surprised mistakes like this don’t happen a lot more often. Luckily for the Norwegian team, the supplier allowed them to return the extra eggs. All 13,500 of them.