Sightings from my alert readers...

All two of them. ;)

This one comes from Curtis at Singing Loudly:

From The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavits, copyright 2003.

In Chapter one the narrator and her sister are in a plane talking about seducing a male flight attendant to see how long it takes him. One is betting the other that he is either to fast or too slow. The sister gets up to go back and give the married flight attendant "a hand."

"The man in row 27 regarded us irritably through the seat crack as I played with her rubber watch, beeping it idiotically in my attempt to set the timer to 00:00. Edith braided her hair over her left
shoulder, then cinched the split, hoary finale with the elastic she had gripped between her teeth. She tossed the braid over her shoulder and pressed her fingers on the cowlicked heaves by her crown."

And the second, from Jen (of all things)

MIAMI (AP) -- Retired but hardly slowing down, Ricky Williams is racking up mileage instead of yardage.

Frequent flyer Williams was in Los Angeles on Monday after a brief visit to Tokyo and may next be bound for Martha's Vineyard. It's all part of a whirlwind trip that became a retirement tour when Williams decided last week he was done with football and the Miami Dolphins at age 27.

VP 27

John Edwards has been married for 27 years.

Jasper Fforde and 27

There is an abundance of 27s in the Thursday Next series.

In the first book, Thursday is a Literary Detective for SpecOps 27.


(text reads Wordage is our business Grammar is our game.)

I know there were more that I came across while reading, before I started formally recording them, but I've just started The Well of Lost Plots and came across this line:

I had this idea for a bumper sticker: 'A unicorn isn't for page twenty-seven, it's for eternity.'

and here's another one, referring to the car Miss Havisham is driving:

It was the 27 liter Higham Special.

Doctoral 27

Jen's doctor brother, who just celebrated one year in practice, wrote in an email to her today:

Take a quick guess on how many patient visits i averaged per week for my first year--

27.

Literary 27s

Twenty-seven--three, and you think he might have had the edge? He murdered us.

-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Well, I'll tell you the truth, said the little old man. I'm just twenty-seven years of age.

-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

27 and Terror

Thanks to Mac for this.

Nabil al-Marabh, once imprisoned as the No. 27 man on the FBI (news - web sites)'s list of must-capture terror suspects, is free again.

Read the complete story at yahoo.com, or get it here. I can't seem to get the link directly to yahoo to work. :(

The New Yorker and Blogging

This story in the New Yorker (with thanks to all things jen for the link)

She scans a dozen first thing in the morning and keeps tabs on another twenty-seven throughout the day, though any of these may lead her to countless others.

That 70's Show

Jen was watching a repeat tonight on Fox, and Kelso bought a sweater that was $27 dollars.

Take me out to the ballgame...

News of Randy Johnson's perfect game reminds me that 27 hitters are retired in a perfect game.

The Simpsons

The episode that played on Fox tonight at 11:

Lisa has a new telescope and is trying to ifnd the stars. She says that at 6:22 pm, Orion will be visible at 27 degrees.

Dave Barry 27

Friday's entry in the Dave Barry desk calendar:

"We put your question to the American Bar Association, which sent us a
127-page response."

Miscellaneous 27s

USPS 27

a search for the US Postal Service online generated 27 results.

Hair band-related 27

Axl Rose was married to Erin Everly for 27 days.

13 Going on 30 27s

In the movie 13 Going on 30, Jenna's (Jennifer Garner's) friend says "If you're going to start lying about your age, I'd go with 27."

Also, the magazine she works for throws a party at 27 Wall Street.

Hallmark Easter Greetings

In a card sent to me by Jen:

"Every year, the Easter Bunny tries to break the record of 327 jelly beans stuffed into his cheeks."

West Wing and more

Nothing to do with Bruce Willis or Matthew Perry

But, as my good friend Ray pointed out, "the whole nine yards" really equals "the whole 27 feet."

More West Wing

From last week's epsiode, The Supremes:

President Bartlet is having a conversation with CJ about abortion and the new potential nominee for the supreme court. He says:

"Twenty-seven million women voted for me. I think they might have had in mind that I was going to protect this particular right."

(see, I thought the whole WW 27 phenomenon had to do with Aaron Sorkin. There were also many 27s on his other show, Sports Night. Maybe he passed the power of 27 on to the writing staff!)

That would make an excellent name for a rock band...

27 Flavors of Punk Rock

Thanks Brian, for sending this one:

The Riverdales

In Brian's own words:

This band uses what I believe is called the 27 flavors of punk rock or something like that. They are very ramones influenced and really good.

Dave Barry

From today's column:

But Dr. Atkins persisted, because he had a dream -- a dream that, some day, he would help the human race by selling it 427 million diet books.

A natural wonder?

Bar in Niagara Falls, NY--Club 427

Sex and the City

In the finale of SATC, Alek says "The museum curator is 27 years old."

The Magic Bus

Okay, so it's not really magic, but I did pass Lakeshore Central Schools bus #327 on the road yesterday. Incidentally, 327 is also the number of the quad that me, Jen, Mary, and Karen lived in sophomore year.

Chevy Commercial

Random guy in Chevy commercial has a 27 on his shirt.

Old Navy

Speaking of shirts...Old Navy puts out a lot of 27-related merchandise. Like a t-shirt, that I own. I've also seen hats.

On the Radio

In my car today, I flipped to the oldies station's "600 best songs of the 60s" countdown just in time to hear the last half of song #27, which was "Build Me Up, Buttercup."

The West Wing 27 Sightings

(from Season 1)

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

President Bartlet has the line "27 lawyers in the room and none of you can tell me what 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc' means?"

A Proportional Response

The president gives his order for retailiatory military action at 16:27

This is a blog devoted to sightings of the number 27 in pop culture, news, and any other random places it decides to pop up.

My friends and I discovered the magic of 27 in college, realizing that people would frequently cite the number 27 in conversation when needing a random number. For example:

"Oh my God, I love this movie. I've seen it like 27 times."

We then began seeing it creep into other things...movies, songs, TV shows. We discovered a website called The 27 Conspiracy, which was a great source of sightings for a while...but Brandon, the keeper of that site, got too busy to keep up with it.

Weird Al Yankovic references the number 27 in a lot of his songs and videos. Some alert listener has chronicled all the Al-related 27s here.

I'm going to post the random sightings I've seen here, and continue posting them as I see them. Have a sighting to add? Email me!