Amaze your friends with this little memory trick

Are you familiar with anchor dates? Anchor dates are a small number of calendar dates, all of which fall on the same day of the week, every year, with one minor adjustment in a leap year. There are 11 Anchor Dates. They are: 4/4 — April 4 6/6 — June 6 8/8 — Aug. 8 10/10 — Oct. 10 12/12 — Dec. 12 5/9 and the reverse, 9/5 7/11 and the reverse, 11/7 Jan. 3 or Jan. 4 in a leap year And the last day of February, whether it’s the 28th or 29th.

At this point, you’re probably thinking: “This is too difficult,” but it isn’t. Don’t bail on me here. Read on. Remember the anchor dates and you can amaze your friends by telling them, off the top of your head, on what day of the week any date they mention will fall.

Let’s try it. First, what you need to know —and are not obligated to share with your friends — is that, in 2018 every anchor date falls on a Wednesday. Let’s arbitrarily pick Aug. 23. You already know that Aug. 8 (8/8) is a Wednesday. So is the 15th and so is the 22nd. So, the 23rd will be a Thursday.

It works backwards as well. If your friends pick Oct. 1, you just remember 10/10, which you know to be a Wednesday. So, you also know Oct. 3 is a Wednesday, so Oct. 1 is a Monday. Have fun with the anchor dates and let this be our little secret.

Fred Trainor is a retired broadcaster living in Okanagan Falls. Email: fredtrainor@shaw.ca

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