Recently the poem "The Higher Mathematics" by G.K. Chesterton, for some reason, came to mind. The first stanza reads as follows:

TWICE one is two,

Twice two is four,

But twice two is ninety-six if you

know the way to score.

Half of two is one,

Half of four is two,

But half of four is forty per cent, 

if your name is Montagu:

For everything else is on the square

If done by the best quadratics;

And nothing is low in High Finance

Or the Higher Mathematics.

Joe Pace Ross

Sliema