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Comment by topbanana | Hacker News Reader

Nobody ever taught me the number of days in each month. I was well into my 20s before I had it nailed

I still use my knuckles. Put your fists out in front of you, each knuckle, starting with the left hand, represents a month--the tall ones are long (31 days) the rest are short (28 or 30).

28, 29 or 30. Divide by 4, 100 and 400 to figure out 28 or 29.

I don't understand what you're saying.

I'm a fan of the knuckles mnemonic: Starting on the outside knuckle of either hand, a high knuckle is 31 days, and the valley between knuckles is less than that (generally 30; FU February), then when you get to the other end of the hand, you double-count the knuckle (or count the knuckle on the other hand) for July and August.

30 days hath September, April, June and November

That's pretty useless as a mnemonic. "30 days hath September, August, March and December" fits the pattern equally well.

Not if you remember the whole rhyme:

    Thirty days have September,
    April, June, and November.
    All the rest have 31,
    Except February alone,
    And that has 28 days clear,
    And 29 in a leap year.

My substitution works without contradictions there too.

This is my version: "30 days has September, all the rest I can't remember."

It's 3<cough cough h@ck COUGH>... unless it's February in which case 2@AHEM#

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