Retired Calif. teacher celebrates ‘Odd Day’

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Ron Gordon would like you to take a moment or three to think about what an odd day Saturday was.

Why? Because 7/9/11 is one of only six dates this century that features three consecutive odd numbers. Next up, 9/11/13.

Gordon, a retired teacher from Redwood City, Calif., has set up a website to celebrate “Odd Day,” and offers some ways to celebrate: Do odds and ends, root for the odds-on-favorite or watch “The Odd Couple.”

Gordon has been fascinated with curious dates since some 30 years ago when he noticed the upcoming date 9/9/81 while writing a check. That, Gordon saw, was a Square Root Day — one in which the day and the month are the same number and, when multiplied, yield the year as it’s expressed in one or two digits.

It led Gordon to begin thinking about Odd Days, which he has continued to do through the years.

“Like a kid, if you find a ladybug on your arm, you run around and show everyone at the picnic until the ladybug flies away,” Gordon said. “This is my ladybug, and it’s not gone yet.”

After 9/11/13, the next Odd Day will be 11/13/15 — and that will be it until next century. (We still have 4/4/16 to look forward to — the next Square Root Day.)

Gordon, 65, has turned to the Internet to promote the days, with his wife illustrating the websites. He also has offered cash prizes to people who do something special to commemorate them.

“The biggest piece of it is people telling people, ‘Hey, It’s Odd Day,’” Gordon said. “It creates its own interactions.”

Some have acted on Gordon’s inspiration.

In Springfield, Ill., the Illinois Presbyterian senior home celebrated Odd Day on Saturday by encouraging seniors to eat their dessert before the rest of their meal at lunch and wear odd clothes, said Tom O’Fallon, the center’s executive director.

O’Fallon said he heard Gordon talking about 3/3/9, another Square Root Day, on the radio and decided to celebrate it at the senior center. The center also celebrated Odd Day on 5/7/9.

“We try and do things to make life exciting for the residents,” he said.