Magic Numbers

[Richard Waller]

My bedside has a digital clock - don't all bedsides? When I wake there are some numbers on the display that seem more friendly than others:

Identical numbers - 1111, 444 and perhaps things like 611 or 455
Serial numbers - 1234 and perhaps 654
Mirror numbers - 5 and 2
Bingo calls - 13 Lucky, 88 two fat ladies, 66 clickety-click, 11 legs
69 and the same thing the other way up 96
If we had a 24 hour clock we could have 2005, or 1931

But quite often I fall asleep as the magic number approaches and I wake up when it has passed. Shall I set the alarm?

Or should I get a life . . .

[donmcc]

A lot of these numbers can't appear on a digital clock. Calculator maybe. When do 88, 69, 96, 611, or 455 appear on a digital clock?

[Richard Waller]

Originally Posted by donmcc

When do 88, 69, 96, 611, or 455 appear on a digital clock?

Yes you have to have a twisted mind - 808, 609, 906

But eleven minutes past six and five to five seem OK

Also try
- simple arithmetic - 642 : 6=4+2

[JohnC]

I still remember where I was on January 23 and 4:56 in 1978 (dorm room at college). It read out to 1 23 456 78.

I often look at the clock in the evening at 11:11. I probably look at it just as much at other times, but of course this patter sticks with me.

I often catch numbers on the digital clock in the car that seem to have some signifigance at the time. But I rarely remember them when I get home. I just have a recollection of one from this weekend that I can't quite remember enough to tell you what it was. I'll have to ask Kim, but she probably stopped paying attention to me rambling on about the numbers. It is almost as bad as my coming up with old song lyrics to fit most situations I find myself in. Or coming up with new lyrics to fit if necessary.

JC

[ElyseC]

My husband says he always seems to glance at a clock when it's either 11:11 or 01:11. Me, it's usually 12:34 and that started when I was in college, in my dorm room which was #1234. It started then and I've been bumping into 1234s ever since. What really surprised me one day several years ago was figuring out that even my birth date has a 1234 connection. Take December, the 12th month. Now count back three months and you have September. Count backward from September four days and you have -- tah dah! -- my birthday, August 28.

Go figure. ;->

[Steve Rindsberg]

11:11 or 1:11 - Might be the Dog Hour in Japanese. One One One sounds like WanWanWan - the sound barking dogs make in Japan.

12:12 - Crocodile Time (two = "ni" so One/Wan-Ni, wani = crodocile)

And you think your mind is twisted???

[Richard Waller]

Also try 10-4 the Police Ten Code acknowledgement. For the full list go to
http://spiffy.ci.uiuc.edu/~kline/Stuff/ten-codes.html

[Richard Waller]

Interesting this topic. People keep telling me they don't understand what I am rabbiting on about. They are using analogue clocks and have a different concept of time.

[Molly/CA]

Our friend Doreen Ross died some years ago. In her last persona as Weird Wanda she had a gallery from which she sold artifacts made from bones and feathers she collected, kind of a sideline from the bone and feather and horns supply business that was her mainstay. She mounted various parts and pieces on black-painted metal screening, kind of collages, or put them together in other ways, as sculptures and jewelry.

Everything in the gallery was priced a certain way: $3.33; $11.11, $9.99 and so on. After her (lingering, from lung cancer) death I often woke up at a "Doreen hour" when such a number was on the lighted digital clock, and enjoyed a moment of remembrance or even a sort of feeling of communion with her, an odd sense of sharing the moment.