[OS X TeX] Superscripts for ordinals

[Doug Fields]

I apologize for the extremely basic nature of this question and the 
fact that it is not directly Mac OS X related. Having read through the 
Not-So-Short introduction to LaTeX and having googled around, I can't 
seem to determine a definitive answer.

Is there a way to get a standard "superscript" in LaTeX easily?

I use ordinals for my document extensively (relating to dates): January 
24th, for example, where I like the th superscript. So, I type:

January 24$^{\mathrm{th}}$

each time, which seems cumbersome and error-prone. Is there something 
easier predefined?

However, to continue on in this thread... If nothing exists, would 
someone give me a definition for doing something like

\ss{th}

or even

\th{}
\nd{}
\st{}
\rd{}

Or even better

\ord{} which checks the previous character and gives the appropriate 
superscript ordinal extension (for English, anyway; I'm sure others can 
add the iemes and whatever they want). Possibly \ord{21} which does the 
same thing but takes the information in there.

Eventually I'll receive some of these books (already ordered) and I'm 
sure will learn how to do simple things like these, but until then...

Thanks,

Doug

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