Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of Spinal Tap, gave an unforgettable illustration of the difference between ordinal and cardinal numbers.
A three minute clip with lead-in is here, a one minute clip with just the highlights is here.
And if you just want to savour the words…
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
HT: Peter B.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
11/11/11 11:11:11 (EST)
K: Very nice.
My Comments go to eleven.
The Tufnel’s have always had an aversion to ten. Nigel’s forebear, Edward Carleton Tufnell wrote in 1834:
“The Union calculated, that had the Ten-hour Bill passed, and all the present factories worked one-sixth less time, one-sixth more mills would have been built to supply the deficient production…”
Tufnell’s boss at the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children in Factories, Edwin Chadwick, worked in close collaboration with Nassau Senior who maintained that the whole net profit of industry was derived from the last hour of operation in an 11 1/2 (average) hour day. Senior thus stood out as the Nigel Tufnel of classical political economy.
Sandwichman – Cool. So history of thought people also have an excuse to watch Spinal Tap!
Well, it’s NOW OFFICIALLY “Interplanetary Nigel Tufnel Day” & I couldn’t be more pleased… we’ll actually I could. But I can’t figure out how to charge royalties from it. Irregardless, make sure you “turn it up to 11”, watch our film, listen to our records, throw a “This Party Goes Past 11” theme party dressed as your fave rock characters and make sure everything’s cleaned up by 11 tomorrow-can’t leave things untidy can we? And don’t forget to have a designated diver!
But I can not figure out how to download the royalties from it. Regardless, make sure you have “Turn It Up 11” to watch movies, listen to a book, throw the “This party runs 11” theme party dressed as the characters rock, beans and make sure everything is clean 11 tomorrow, can ‘ t we leave things messy?