Jake Thackray 'Molly Metcalfe'
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it in threads about sheep-counting systems as the famous song that explains them.
What it is
Jake Thackray performs the folk song Molly Metcalfe, which opens with an explanation of the traditional northern English sheep-counting system (yan, tan, tethera). It is a short, witty piece of British folk songwriting.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2013 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends nkurz · 2022-01 · on “Yan tan tethera: A Celtic sheep-counting system”
Have you seen the famous folk song that starts with an explanation of these? Jake Thackray 'Molly Metcalfe' [this video]
Recommends nkurz · 2022-12 · on “Yan Tan Tethera”
It's fair game, since it didn't get much discussion, but if you click on 'past' in the list of links below the title, you'll see a couple times this has already been posted. But since it's here again, I'll again recommend the Youtube video of Jake Thackray singing 'Molly Metcalfe': [this video] Anyone grow up somewhere where this style of counting is still in use? Or one like it? Or did these die out in the last generation?
Recommends I_complete_me · 2022-12 · on “Yan tan tethera pethera pimp – an old system for counting sheep”
Here's Jake Thackray singing a song with this in it. Wonderful stuff. [this video] . Edit: Just noticed this is referenced in the article. Sorry.
Cites robotmay · 2013-01 · on “I Support the WebKit Monoculture”
Oh absolutely, if they updated it to be based on modern farming then everyone would have significantly less acreage :D But you'll find that with most imperial measurements; they're based on physical objects or systems of measuring which make less sense today. One of my favourites being the traditional way of counting sheep in the north of England: [LINK] (and here's a great explanation and song by the late Jake Thackeray: [this video] ).
Cites nkurz · 2019-11 · on “Counting in the wrong language”
Depending on what you are counting, sometimes "wrong" can be historically "right": In Swaledale, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, sheep farmers used to, and some still do; count their sheep in a very curious fashion. Instead of One, Two, Three, Four... they go, thus: (1)Yan, (2)Tan, (3)Tether, (4)Mether, (5)Pip; (6)Ezar, (7)Sezar, (8)Acker, (9)Conter, (10)Dick; (11)Yan-a-Dick, (12)Tan-a-Dick, (13)Tether-a-Dick, (14)Mether-a-Dick, (15)Bumfit; (16)Yan-a-Bum, (17)Tan-a-Bum, (18)Tether-a-Bum, (19)Mether-a-Bum, (20)Jigget. Having reached Twenty, they then take a stone [or make a mark upon the ground or a piece of wood, thus the term 'a score' or 'twenty'] representing the Twenty sheep that they
Cites 082349872349872 · 2024-11 · on “Optimizers need a rethink”
in qua talibus Indorum fruimur bis quinque figuris : [LINK] (our own convention; the fox has Hox, and the lion too, but they'd probably count in octal. For those keeping score, compare The House of Asterion : "The original says fourteen, but there is ample reason to infer that, as used by Asterion, this numeral stands for infinite") Lagniappe: [this video] EDIT: while we're at it, maybe I should specify units as orbits of Sol III?