Talk:At sixes and sevens

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I don't think "There is also a story using this phrase as it's title, written by ~Gibah at gibah.deviantart.com" should be a part of this article. Aside from the lack of punctuation and the misuse of the contraction "it's", there is the obvious problem that, honestly, nobody reading an article about an expression cares that a little-known story is named after it. If anywhere on Wikipedia, this information should show up in a box saying "For the story of the same name, see At Sixes and Sevens (story)" - and that would only make sense if the story was important enough to be a Wikipedia article.

If, 124.180.198.48, you are indeed ~Gibah at deviantART, you ought to check out WP:NOT#SOAP #2. I hope you are not intentionally using Wikipedia as a tool to expand your audience.

I'm reverting again because there is much more harm to be done to the quality of the article by having one inappropriate (my view) sentence present than by having one appropriate (presumably your view) but clearly non-critical sentence absent. Can we please leave the article in its original form until we've discussed this issue?

Pandas 23:01, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Anyone who has wrestled with a guitar fretboard might agree that the origin of the phrase might be musical. Chords are made up of three tones, basically, called a triad. They're fairly easy to learn. But once one tries to add extra tones, such as adding the sixth interval of the scale, or the seventh interval, one's fingers and patience are seriously challenged. Hence, one is flustered and frustrated, very much "at sixes and sevens".

I won't go to the mat over that theory, but another avenue of inquiry occurs to me upon reading in the article "to set on cinque and sice" from the game, hazard. Rather than a direct translation of numbers, might the expression derive from a rhyming or transliteration (if that's the term to use) of a different expression entirely? For example, everything in "apple pie order" derives, I was told, from the French "cap a pied", head to toe.

96.233.102.68 (talk) 02:09, 7 February 2008 (UTC)dadoben