Hildred Crill

Paper Foreign Relations

paper was secret because of distance
paper decelerates and saves words
paper meets expectations
paper isn't the target
paper formats us
paper belongs to a series
paper can't be a secret, there is no distance

Ten years after Jefferson 's draft of the Declaration, Lichtenberg proposed a format with a beautiful ratio. Before Xerox proposed enlargement or reduction, you were on your own but paper belonged to a series. If you divide any A paper today height by width, you still get the square root of two. 210 X 297 mm, for example, is no random deal. Shift to U.S. letter and you're a bit on your own. Difficult, yes, but even fickle ratios format us. Size, nevertheless, should not be a puzzle, should not be arbitrary. Nearly the whole world knows this and uses the A-series.

Everywhere paper
is self-evident
paper is no secret
paper belongs
paper relates

The square root of two relates
The square root of two is a relationship
The square root of two might not be possible
           to get close to
The square root of two is awkward
The square root of two might not stop
The square root of two is not rational
The square root of two is assumed to be rational
           but can't escape contradiction
The square root of two is shown to be not rational
The square root of two is shown to its first million digits
           in NASA's spare time
The square root of two belongs to a series
The square root of two formats us
The square root of two is not arbitrary
The square root of two is globalized
There is no distance