Back in March, I rambled on about why I use the number “30” at the end of each blog entry. If you really don’t know, and are interested, you can check it out in the archives. Thirty is an interesting number, not just because I use it to end my blog… Before most clocks became digital, the number 30 was very important to a clock… a clock face is divided into 12 sections (hours) around the circle that makes up the face. The circle is 360 degrees. If you divide 360 by 12 you get — 30. Thirty is also half of 60, the number of minutes in an hour and the number of seconds in a minute. They say you can’t trust anyone over 30 and even the Bible weighs in on the importance of the number — Christ was 30 when he began his public ministry on earth and Christ was sold out by Judas for 30 pieces of silver. Noah’s Ark was 30 cubits high. There was a 30-year war (from 1618 to 1648.) And if that’s not enough, the atomic number of Zinc is 30.
As important and impressive as 30 is, my favorite number has always —well, maybe not always but for at least a long time — been 33.
During the Vietnam War, the local beer of South Vietnam was Ba Moui Ba or Biere 33. The label had a big “33” on it. And while on the subject of beer, the Rolling Rock Beer Co. uses what they call “The 33 Mystery.” The number 33 appears on all their bottles and supposedly means 3 things. You can check their web site or call the company and find out that the 3 things refer to the repeal of prohibition in 1933 and there are 33 words in the paragraph on the bottles — and — there are 33 letters in the list of ingredients. This isn’t where I originally was headed with this blog, but I find it interesting that there is a huge disagreement over the 33 on the Rolling Rock bottle. Some of the theories are:
• The reservoir that was used by the brewery for its main water source was fed by 33 streams.
• The brewery workers were members of the Local #33 union.
• There were exactly 33 steps from the brewmaster’s office to the brewing floor.
• The Rolling Rock brewery was started with money won at the horse track (the winning bet was placed on #33 and that’s why there is a horse and the “33” on the bottle.)
• It was the 33rd version of the recipe that became what is now Rolling Rock.
Anyhow, back to 33 — the Hershey company has the capacity to make about 33 million Hershey’s Kisses a day.
Groundhog Day occurs on February 2, the 33rd day of the year — that means there are 332 days left in the year, so if you count backwards from the year’s end, it’s the 333rd day.
The U.S Air Force’s first jet trainer was the T-33 Shooting Star.
The Russian alphabet has 33 letters.
The State of Texas Constitution states, “The Senate shall consist of 33 Senators, and no more.”
The chicken in the background of the “The Simpsons” has the number 33 as its wing. Baseball’s longest game (Rochester Red Wings vs. Pawtucket Red Sox – April, 1981) lasted 33 innings.
••• Roswell, New Mexico is located at 33ª [37’] N latitude. •••
California has 33 state prisons. The Republic of China has 33 regions. Mexico has 33 states.
The BBC World Service news website offers news in 33 languages.
The first Powerball jackpot over 1 million dollars — the Powerball number was 33. Michelangelo was 33 years old when he started work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
33 is the atomic number for arsenic. Jesus was 33 when he was crucified in 33 A.D. and 33 is the numerical equivalent of AMEN — 1+13+5+14 = 33.
Possibly my fondness for 33 can be traced back to Indian heritage. According to Apache belief, “… from the time of the Harmonic Convergence (1987) until 2020, we’ll be in the chaos of the world, like a red ray leaving and a purple ray trying to get a foothold… There will be such imbalance that everyday will be a juggling act — a challenge to remain in harmony and not be thrown off by the chaos of these two powerful energies, war and peace. This is a 33-year cycle.”
So we just need to hang in there for a few more years.
And if all that isn’t enough to make my favorite number double 3’s, We got married when I was — 33.
— 30 —