<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; "></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; "><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; "><div id="yiv625846374"><div><span><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="2"><div>On Wednesday, October 19, 2011 4:16 PM, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff@verizon.net> wrote in reply to me:</div><div>>> Hoy: What if a year is actually ten hundred-days? Is there anything in Home Fires that might contradict this metrification? Twenty-two years of hundred-time equals about sixty of ours ...</div><div><br></div><div>> Stockoff: There was some discussion of time a few months ago (see "Home Fires and calendar reform"). The year seems to be 400 days, with 100-day quarters and (I guess) 33-day months. So 500 days
would be more than a year. I just returned the book to the library---how long is Chelle supposed to be on leave? Anyway, the agent's assignment to Skip could be that long.</div><div><br></div><div>> Stockoff: Now, if you allow massive rounding (odd in a metric time system, but maybe common among people who haven't adapted to it yet), "200 days, about half a year" could mean almost 250 days, so a year might be 500 days. BTW, I think you're off by a decimal: 22 x 100 = 2200; 2200/365 = 6 of our years or 5.5 400-day years. Or did I misunderstand you?</div><div><br></div><div>I was calculating that 22 "thousand-day years" is about 60 "three-hundred-sixty-five-day years." 22 * 1000 = 60 * 366.666... But my guess is refuted by a detail I hadn't noticed & to which you refer: Ch 11 Right and Left, Rick Johnson tells Skip about a temporary job he once held for "two hundred days or so, about half a
year." </div><div><br></div><div>> Stockoff: Another approach: if tours of duty are similar to our own, i.e., 6 months to 2 to 4 years, maybe that's a place to start. Given interstellar distances, 2 years may be the minimum time Chelle was away. Would 1000 days be a typical tour, or 500 + star travel? How many years would pass on Earth?</div><div><br></div><div>Nailing down the length of a year has significance if you want to know where Chelle fought the Os.</div><div><br></div><div>In Ch 2 When Janie Comes Marching Home, Chelle asks, "How long was I gone?" "Twenty-two years, one hundred and six days," Skip replies, "I was..." then trails off into silence. "Speechless, Counselor?" Skip offers up a few words to explain how he felt, including a phrase from Edward Coke,"Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi." Truth is only afraid of concealment. Curiously, we find a similar quote in <i>An Evil Guest</i> from Coke's legal rival Francis Bacon,
the bit in the first chapter where the President scoffs,"What's truth, said jestin' Pilate."] This particular legal phrase doesn't really fit Skip's situation. To me, it feels more like "X" marks the spot.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The time passed provides an estimate of the distance traveled. There are only three stars within 11 light years of Earth. Assuming near-perfect lightspeed travel, Chelle possibly traveled to Epsilon Eridani, 10.5 light years distant. </div><div><br></div><div>Doesn't leave Chelle much duty time at her destination--about 1 year 106 days--, but this is consistent with the story. She returned early due to injury.</div></font></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>