Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Rotten 27s

From Jasper Fforde's Something Rotten

Beginning of chapter 5:

The twenty-seven point procedure is the most costly and complicated piece of bureaucracy the city has ever devised...


End of chapter 43:

"You sent all twenty-eight of them forward just to hide St. Zvlkx?"

"Twenty-seven actually--one of them was real."

27 monkeys



Ookla the Mok's CD Smell No Evil is:

a 27-track rock opera about a space-rocket test-monkey and the boy who loves him.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Another literary-type 27

Sarah (Squeak) writes:

Not sure if you have this one - I just finished reading Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuck. From the inside cover of the paperback:

Ever heard of a culling song? It's a lullaby sung in Africa to give a painless death to the old or infirm. The lyrics of a culling song kill, whether spoken or even just thought. You can find one on page 27 of POEM AND RHYMES FROM AROUND THE WORLD, an anthology that is on the shelves of libraries across the country.

Thanks, Sarah!

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Major League 27s

Many thanks to an alert reader who sent me this.

MINNEAPOLIS -- After playing 27 innings in 27 hours, the Oakland Athletics were just glad to be going home. Going home with two victories was a bonus.

Buffalo Regional Government!

From the Buffalo news story- Proposal: A new 'regional city'

With one chief executive elected countywide, the regional city would take on City Hall's functions and its approximately 2,700 workers, protecting their seniority without being bound by labor contracts negotiated with the former city government.

AND

The commission's plan attempts to address that issue by expanding the Legislature from 15 to perhaps as many as 27 members, with roughly nine from Buffalo since the city makes up about 30 percent of the county population.

Buffalo is in THE KNOW!
posted by jen ; )

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Princess-y 27s

From The Princess Bride by William Goldman. (That's the book version. Not the movie.)

Inigo, at the age of twenty-seven, began having a few extra glasses of wine at night, to help him get to sleep.

and

...the Prince interrupted the Archdean with gentlest manner and said, "Holiness, my love is simply overpowering my ability to wait--please skip on down to the end of the service."
The time was then 5:27

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

27 in The Village

I went to see The Village tonight, and I don't want to give away any plot points...but there is a 27 near the end of the film.

Late Show 27

Tom Cruise was a guest on tonight's Late Show with David Letterman. Dave asked Tom how many movies he's done 20? 30?

Tom said, "I don't know...definitely more than 20. Maybe twenty.....seven?"

Monday, August 02, 2004

Linky goodness

Here are some more 27-related links...

Project X: The Mystery of the Number 27

27 Number Phenomenon Sightings

Properties of the Number 27

Mystical mathematical randomness

Thanks again to Jen for finding this link.

27

The third cube, 33.

1/27 = .037037037..., and 1/37 = .027027027...

27!+1 is prime. There aren't many numbers N such that N!+1 is prime; and it's hard to find them because factorials are so large. As of May 2002, the only known values of N are: 1, 2, 3, 11, 27, 37, 41, 73, 77, 116, 154, 320, 340, 399, 427, 872, 1477, 6380, 26951, ... (Sloane's A002981).

27×227+227+27 is prime.

Because 27 is the smallest factor of 999 that is not also a factor of 9 or 99, 27 is the smallest number whose reciprocal has a 3-digit repeating pattern. See also 239 and 757.

27 is the sum of the digits 2 through 7. 15 is the other 2-digit number that shares this property.

To test a number for divisibility by 27:

Take the digits of the number in groups of 3 starting from the right, and add the resulting numbers together. If the result is more than 3 digits, repeat this process.

Check the resulting 3-digit number for divisibility by 9. If it isn't, the original number isn't divisible by 27.

If it is, divide it by 9 (see the 9 entry for a simple way to do this). Then check the answer for divisibility by 3. If it is, the original number is divisible by 27, otherwise it isn't.

See also 89, 134217728, 10888869450418352160768000000 and 103.0056206947796095239×1029.

27 is a psychologically random number, similar to 17 and 37 and having no particular cultural origin. Like 37, it is often used when some random-sounding large number is needed. For example, in Graham Greene's 1953 play The Living Room one finds the line:


ROSE Since my last confession three weeks ago I've committed adultery
twenty-seven times.


(27 is also my favorite cult number, for various reasons, for example it's the street number of a house where I grew up, and my age was 27 years + 27 days when I met a certain close friend.)

27s from the research assistant...

Since my lovely roommie was so kind as to find my explanation of the magic of 27 and put it at the top of the blog, she has been named the official research assistant of The Chronicles of 27. (It's it's own reward...)

Here are some of her sightings:

Her mother has wanted to know since 1976: Is Cathy ever going to get married?

We all know her - perhaps a little too well. Pathetic one day, empowered the next. Since she first appeared in newspapers 27 years ago, the maddening yet lovable Everywoman has struggled "with the four basic guilt groups: food, love, mother and career," said her creator, Cathy Guisewite.

27 Sightings of Late.
1. 27 days for a marriage license.

I saw this article a few days ago.
There's more to marriage than a license

BY MITCH ALBOM
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Last week, a group of Michigan lawmakers, hoping to stem the alarming divorce rate, proposed a law: couples would have to undergo four hours of pre-marital counseling.

If they refused, they would have to wait 27 days for a marriage license, instead of just three.

Now, I can hear our married readers screaming, "Go for the 27! Are you crazy?" This only shows the disconnect between those who dream of jumping over the broom, and those who are already sweeping up.

2. 27 Giambra Regionalism Proposals.
FOCUS: GIAMBRA REPORT CARD
Short on results?

Not all of Giambra's ideas are faring so well. Of the 27 proposals floated by the county executive, the cities, towns or villages he needed to work with rejected nearly half. And some of those communities criticized Giambra for his "flavor of the month" approach to regionalism.

3. U.S. Constitution
has 27 amendments...

4. Secret Peach Passion Sparkly Gel Deodorant
2.7 ounces! What more could a Jen ask for? Peach and sparkly!

5. In the book that Erin and I bought for lent...
the first lesson...is a meditation, that you are supposed to say one time and then REPEAT 26 times. Meaning 27 times. Another sign...

8. Sofia Coppola
What up? Is she really the first American woman to be nominated as best director? And did it really take her...dadadada 27 days to make the film? Whoa. I think she was a terrible actress, right?

Walgreen's Drugstore.
I was purchasing an item that the cashier thought was in the rebate book. I knew it wasn't I already looked...but she said "just give me 27 seconds!" : )

Bam#1
Another 27 sighting...although I am not sure how positive this one is...
Some question the expense of having a full-time Council in Buffalo with its staff of 27 and dozens of interns.

We just downsized 4 at-large members, which should not have even been an issue...but...Well, isn't it obvious that we don't need that many members? But no...no...not obvious in Buffalo. Home of all things racially motivated of course. 27 staff members.