Fun With Numbers

Ex-Jeffco tax assessor Charles Crim dies

ERIC VELASCO
News staff writer

Charles Crim died Tuesday, months after retiring as Jefferson County's tax assessor for 22 years and a county career that touched seven decades. He was 77 years old. [...]

He went to work when he was 7 years old?

The story goes on to say that he started working for the County in 1947, which means he put in a good, hard 56 years, which is shy of seven decades by a bit. I've noticed this in several different articles lately, where a person's time of service is counted based upon the nearest ten year period--the most recent one I can think of is Valerie Plame, a 40ish woman whom some reports have described as having a CIA career that covered three decades.

I imagine she probably started work there sometime in the late-Eighties and continued until now, but twelve or thirteen or fourteen years does not three decades make.

(Unless she found out about them from the CIA's Homepage for Kids and went to work at 10.)

Anyway, it seems like writers are trying to give the impression of much more impressively long time of service for some reason--such a way of counting is really depressing, though, since my life has now spanned two whole centuries.

No wonder I'm so sleepy all the time.
posted by Terry at 8:32:00 AM