Hey Nancy!   
      
    MK>> things can be better.   
      
    NB> I'll say that, too... when appropriate...  ;)   
      
   In this case I think you might be right.  I've been experimenting with it and   
   so far haven't been able to improve upon it whatsoever.  The best so far has   
   been in the order of 5-ish milliseconds.  I was guesstimating that I might be   
   able to trim it down to microseconds but so far no such luck.   
      
    NB> I still have a smidge of the leftover Glenmorangie   
      
   I don't recall the last time I had any but offhand am guessing at least 25-ish   
   years ago.  Same with Oban which I spied a bottle of when purchasing the 15yo   
   Glenlivet.  That might be something worth reinvestigating on 2019-01-01 but am   
   sure I will have to plan ahead for ... say Semptember-ish again.   
      
   ----- ":read !datediff '2018-09-01' '2018-01-13'" starts   
   231 days   
   ----- ":read !datediff '2018-09-01' '2018-01-13'" ends   
      
   'datediff' is a little bash script I wrote just for the occasion as a   
   companion to the "bottles of beer" subject generator.  It now appears to have   
   evolved into an offline Fidonet "bottles of beer" msg generator for Little   
   Mikey.  So far it has created two test msg's posted in the TUXPOWER echo and   
   might see some airtime here in ASIAN_LINK come 2018-09-24, just in time for   
   the 2019-01-01 "bottles of beer" countdown ... maybe.  Maybe we'll think up   
   something better and perhaps less annoying?  ;-)   
      
   Life is good,   
   Maurice   
      
   ... Future cybertoasts of note:   
       2019-01-01 is  353 days from now and falls on a Tuesday.   
       2024-11-05 is 2488 days from now and falls on a Tuesday.   
   --- GNU bash, version 4.4.12(1)-release (x86_64-silvermont-linux-gnu)   
    * Origin: Little Mikey's Brain - Ladysmith BC, Canada (1:153/7001)