Pick a Number In The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster's classic ode to learning, the rulers of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis are at loggerheads, each believing that words and numbers, respectively, are paramount. "Never mention numbers here," King Azaz the Unabridged declares. "Only use them when we absolutely have to." In actuality, numbers play a critical role in the wordsmith's craft. Much of English poetry, including dramatic verse, is metrical and thus reducible to lines, feet, and syllables, most commonly expressed through iambic pentameter, a line with five feet, each containing two syllables -- the first unstressed and the second stressed. Shakespeare was a [...]