Tuesday, June 16, 2009

5/3

Maybe it’s because I live in California or because I don’t follow publicly traded financial institutions. Maybe it’s because I don’t watch enough minor league baseball or maybe I’m just sheltered. But when I linked over to Lisa-Project 365 from a comment she left me, I had to zoom in on the photo and do a double take. They didn’t really name a bank 5/3, did they? Really?

Now, Lisa‘s blog post had nothing to do with the name of this bank, apparently everyone in the Midwest knows of it. Afterall, Fifth Third Bank has been around for about 100 years before I was even born. But what’s up with the name 5/3?
Why not 1- 2/3 or 123?

Apparently Fifth Third's unusual name is the result of the merger of two banks, The Fifth National Bank and The Third National Bank. They say that because the merger took place during a period when prohibitionist ideas were gaining popularity, it was believed that "Fifth Third" was better than "Third Fifth," which could be construed as a reference to three "fifths" of alcohol. Thank you Wikipedia.

Personally, I’d rather have five-thirds of something than three-fifths, so the name’s cool with me. And hey, 5 + 3 = 8; and eight’s my favorite number.
Maybe I’ll open an on-line account, but not yet. I think I’ll wait till tomorrow, say eight seconds after 8:08.

2 comments:

  1. Statistics show that 4/3 of people are bad at fractions, you know...

    Anyways, you aren't the only one who loves that number. 8 is the luckiest number in traditional Chinese culture. That's why the Beijing Olympics started at 8:08:08 on 8/8/08!

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  2. Hey I learned something new! I saw that pic on Lisa's blog and I never even noticed the name / number .. shows how much I pay attention!

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