Let me explain.  First I like to quantify things -- not as any huge means of trying to impose a harmonious philosophy on the universe but rather simply because it pleasantly orders things in my mind.  Anyhow, Erin, my kindergartener, came home for winter break with a homework assignment.  Her teacher is lovely, patient person, and an excellent teacher so my desire to answer the homework questions with a generous bit of snark has no bearing whatsoever on her.   It seems to be just a personality flaw of my own perhaps brought on by too many years of having to answer obvious homework questions with equally obvious answers.  (For example from about 8th grade, "Please explain in complete sentences why the American Revolution was important to the development of the United States as a autonomous nation."  Um. Yeah.)

Erin's assignment is to count and record the total number of fingers in the family. (Perfectly appropriate question for 6 year olds.) There are five of us so ... but... I thought that writing down 51 would add just that amount of intrigue to the answer and maybe give her teacher something to ponder. And also probably result in her teacher trying to surreptitiously get a good look at our hands the next time we visit the classroom.  When I was discussing this with my husband, he asked "Why not have her write down 49?"  And I thought about it and concluded this number would have only been the result of a tragedy and would just give the teacher a reason to be sad for someone in our family.  Thus the difference between intriguing and tragic is simply 51 minus 49 resulting in 2.  QED.