twentythreesome

before the strawberry social

2010-08-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

"miss beatrice, i've waited 23 years to ask you this: may i have this dance?" -jimmy joe in to wong foo

asia is twentythreesome

2010-07-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

i recently returned from a tour of southeast asia, a land rife with my favorite number.

first stop: bangkok, where we stayed at my friend rob's house:

next stop: indonesia. we were seated at table 23 for lunch at the bali zoo:

the entrance to the bali airport is lined with ads for the 23rd anniversary of the double six nightclub in kuta:

we flew to kuala lumpur where we checked in at desk R23 for our flight to siem reap...

...and the kuala lumpur airport security folks slapped a twentythreesome sticker on my bag:

when we landed in siem reap, i noticed the 23s on the wing of our plane...

...and that we'd landed on a twentythreesome runway:

the hotel in hong kong had a subtly twentythreesome elevator:

our bus to central seated 23 people...

...and i couldn't look out the window without seeing other buses on route 23:

and finally, a hong kong street gutter:

H is the 8th letter of the alphabet. 8 = 2^3. just saying.

rooftop party for LA pride

2010-06-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

it's going to be a good day when a 23 sneaks into your photo...

you're in serious trouble if you share this

2010-06-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

NPR's planet money got a hold of the search terms lawyers are using to assign blame at lehman. as a result, they've released a list of the 23 terms not to use in an email.

stupid
huge mistake
big mistake
dumb
can’t believe
cannot believe
serious trouble
big trouble
unsalvageable
shocked
speechless
too late
uncomfortable
not comfortable
i don’t think we should
very sensitive
highly sensitive
very confidential
highly confidential
do not share this
don’t share this
between you and me
just between us

noah's ark

2010-06-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

at the skirball center's gift shop, we learned it only takes 23 stickers to make your own.

unhelpful AND preachy

2010-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

i'm on hold with AT&T (for the record, probably the least customer-friendly company of all time) to talk to them about my text plan, and their hold "music" includes an admonition that people who text while driving are 23 times more likely to be in an accident.

craigslist employees

2010-05-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

my buddy jake shared this interesting fact about craigslist:

pork bun

2010-05-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

hanging out in a bar in washington dc, my buddy ryan and i started talking about dim sum, and i suddenly had an insatiable craving for a char siu bao (steamed pork bun). he told me that he knew a place that might still be open, and i was set on it. after frantically waving down a cab, speeding over there, and then begging the hostess to let us in, we succeeded in our epic feat to acquire said bun. we finally made our way to the menu, where i found my bao waiting for me: #23.

superstruct

2010-05-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

i finally watched jane mcgonigal's TED talk about how gaming can change the world. as part of her work at the institute for the future, she's creating world-saving games to teach collaborative problem solving skills. one of her most recent games is called superstruct and the premise is that a supercomputer has calculated that humans have only 23 years left on the planet.

wassail mug

2010-04-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

today is the one year anniversary of twentythreesome, and it seems only fitting to post something about my alma mater, which has been getting a lot of attention lately on my real blog.

every year (when i was a student, at least), claremont mckenna college hosted a madrigal feast -- it's a throw back to medieval times when people ate unidentifiable meats, drank wassail from special mugs, and kissed each other in exchange for fruit. or maybe those were just our traditions.

in any case, i was at my friend's house the other night, enjoying a nice mug of beer, when i noticed my mug was "permanently borrowed" from one such madrigal feast. imagine my delight when i noticed that this particular mug was from the 23rd annual madrigal feast, which occurred in 2005. the year 2005 is particularly notable here because it is my graduation year, and the last year i attended a madrigal feast. cheers!

secede from the union

2010-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

top of the list...

out of san francisco...

2010-04-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

as usual, i flew out of gate 23 today. i was on flight 3234 (which is almost my birthdate, save the 8, which is 2^3 and the sum of 3+2+3, incidentally).

coit tower

2010-04-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

the ground floor of coit tower in san francisco is lined with public works era murals, one of which depicts bars of gold from 1923. bar number 7023 is right in the middle of the mural.

after taking the elevator to the top, i had to climb 23 stairs to get outside.

vodka martini, hold the wedding

2010-04-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

southwest's in-flight magazine had an article about america's priciest cocktail: $10,000. the algonquin hotel's blue bar serves the grey goose martini with a customized diamond ring at the bottom of the glass. price of the drink sans commitment? $23.

into san francisco...

2010-04-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

my sunday

2010-03-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

had brunch with mom at huckleberry, and the bill was $23.

had my double bat mitzvah birthday dinner at a mexican restaurant, and they said because of the size of my party, i'd have to do a $23-per-person fixed menu.

before bed, i read one page of infinite jest by david foster wallace and came across this quote: "Still: Twenty-three human beings lost for all time: that'd be some hoax, no?"

what is sex?

2010-03-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

i adore mark morford, columnist for the san francisco chronicle. his column this week was inspired by a kinsey institute survey indicating that there isn't a lot of consensus about what constitutes as sex. i was disturbed to read this twentythreesome statistic:

23 percent of the over-65 men in the survey, who seemed to think that not even penis-vagina penetration was to be considered the real thing. Translation: Do not have sex with weird old men in Indiana.

in my opinion, this was the real money quote from the column:

Was there penetration? Orgasm by at least one party? Was there some comment along the lines of, "I'd like to have sex with you," followed by nodding and the removal of clothing and then direct cash payment from the Republican senator/Vatican official to the gay prostitute? Was Tiger Woods involved? You had sex. I mean, obvs.

sex, drugs, and 23 cocoa puffs

2010-03-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

my friend cullen sent me an email this week:

I’ve been reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. In the book, Klosterman presents a list of 23 (I know. Calm down.) questions he must ask before people deciding if he can truly love them. This is one of the questions:

“A novel titled Interior Mirror is released to mammoth commercial success (despite middling reviews). However, a curious social trend emerges: Though no one can prove a direct scientific link, it appears that almost 30 percent of the people who read this book immediately become homosexual. Many of these newfound homosexuals credit the book for helping them reach this conclusion about their orientation, despite the fact that Interior Mirror is ostensibly a crime novel with no homoerotic content (and was written by a straight man). Would this phenomenon increase (or decrease) the likelihood of you reading this book?”

Thought you might enjoy that.

superbowl saint

2010-02-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

as soon as i saw #23 -- the new orleans saints' pierre thomas -- i said, "he's going to score their first touchdown." count it.

most worn words

2010-01-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

spreadshirt released their analysis of the most worn words in 2009 based on sales of their t-shirts. "i" was very popular, as were "obama" and "team." i checked to see what was the 23rd most popular name: jordan, of course.

we are always 23.

2010-01-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

hat tip to garrison keillor's the writer's almanac on november 6, 2009.

Twenty-three
by Liam Rector

When he was 23 and beautiful
He liked to hang around
With other beautiful people.

He liked to get intoxicated with them,
Have sex with them, make money
With them. Among them,

He found, one did not have to strain.
Other people
Wanted to hang around with them

And came bearing gifts,
A little something. (These
Gift-bearers were a lot like

Politics itself is, "Showbiz
For ugly people.") In this world
If anything went wrong there

Was always enough money around
To cover it. After he was through
With this crowd he started hanging

Out with a bunch of academic
Gangsters. These were
A different crew altogether:

Smart, on the main, but mean
And eaten alive by resentment.
They never had enough money

And were bitter beyond belief,
Compared, say,
To a troupe of electricians.

Freud said somewhere
In our unconscious
We are always 23.

captcha

2010-01-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

just got the following "random" captcha from facebook:

not that i watch trashy tv....

2010-01-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

i was watching "the biggest loser" tonight, and there are 23s everywhere! weighing in at close to half a ton, the brown team twins (james and john) are the biggest team ever on the show. they both lost 23 lbs this week.

also, patti, the mom on the purple team, lost 23 lbs -- the largest amount ever lost in one week by a female in the show's history.

blackberry bold

2010-01-05T21:34:00.001-08:00

t-mobile is running a tv commercial advertising service for the blackberry bold for "less than $23 a month."

drug store literature

2010-01-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

while waiting at the pharmacy yesterday, i discovered this lovely gem on the bookshelf.

home for the holidays

2009-12-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

i'm with my family for the holidays, and today we're baking cookies and watching our collective favorite movie, home for the holidays. seriously, it's one of the best films ever made. i've seen in dozens of times, and it's better every time.

in one of the final scenes of the movie, the dad (played by charles durning) says to his daughter (played by holly hunter), "you know, i worked this airport for 23 years, and they won't even let me through the jetway."

dolphin slaughter

2009-12-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

last night i watched the cove, a film that's part eco-documentary, part spy drama about the secret dolphin slaughter in japan. animal rights activists assemble an ocean's 11-style commando team to expose the heinous killings of 23,000 dolphins a year -- a stat that's repeated over and over throughout the film. the never-before-seen footage they capture is disturbing and disgusting: the final scenes show the cove in which the slaughter takes place quickly filling with blood.

this movie is heavy, but very well done. another masterpiece from the good folks at participant media.

up in the air

2009-12-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

saw jason reitman's new film, up in the air, the other night. in one scene, they're trying to determine how to ground their employees, and it's revealed that they have 23 salesmen on the road.

second busiest travel day of the year

2009-11-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

went standby on a recent flight home from SFO. original flight was booked out of gate 23, but i thought i'd dodged the 23 bullet when i got on an earlier flight. turns out it was flight 5023 and it left at 2:30PM.

diabetes

2009-11-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

from causecast's 10 things you need to know about diabetes, posted on november 23.

23.6 million people in the U.S. have diabetes
2/3 of diabetes patients die from heart disease or stroke
people with diabetes typically pay 2.3 times more in health care costs

austin at brunch today...

2009-11-19T23:19:00.001-08:00

"you know, 23% of people don't even believe in global warming."

boston airport

2009-11-19T23:17:00.000-08:00

dial *23 for information at boston's logan international airport.

also, while i was waiting to board my flight today, the woman next to me at the gate was calling her husband to make sure he was going to feed the kids while she was gone. "i left hot dogs in the fridge," she instructed. "just stick 'em in the microwave for 23 seconds, and they're good to go."

half marathon

2009-11-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

my best friend erin just sent me a text about finishing her first half marathon:

"I did it! 2:33! 12 minutes faster than in training!"

not just my roulette number

2009-11-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

just saw a time warner cable business class ad where people are playing roulette. "red 23! you win!" shouts the announcer.

the flight landed, don't worry

2009-11-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

on my recent flight from dubai to bangalore, i sat over the wing. when i looked out the window, i couldn't help but feel like hurley on lost. other than the small emirates logo on the wing tip, there are no markings anywhere on the entire wing. except for the numbers 2 and 3 stenciled right outside my window. wtf.

where's george?

2009-10-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

i recently received a $1 bill with a request to log its whereabouts on www.wheresgeorge.com. when i entered my bill's location, its travel pattern was revealed. last time someone spotted my washington? 23 days ago.

@annekejong twitter post

eddie izzard: into twentythreesomes

2009-10-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite comedians, eddie izzard, did a semi-impromptu show tonight to benefit one of my favorite local charities, 826LA.

twentythrees showed up multiple times throughout his 2-hour set such that i kept hitting my friend every time they popped up. two in particular that i remember:

he talked about a situation in which someone has 23 testicles
he suggests that after just 23 years in the desert, someone should have called moses out

guest blogger: vending machines

2009-10-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

guest blogger: kefer

my friend kefer is up to her ears in vending machine data, but one stat keeps popping up over and over again...

vending machines are so prevalent in japan that there is 1 vending machine for every 23 people.

skidoo!

2009-09-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

i'm currently reading "fraud" by david rakoff. an excerpt from p.12:

"The term '23 skidoo' is from the twenties in New York. The Flatiron Building at 23rd Street creates this wind tunnel that, I guess, used to blow pretty young girls' skirts up, and the cops would signal one another that they could see the thighs of some lovely young thing by saying...uh...'23 skidoo'...it was part of the slang."

phoenix

2009-09-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

i'm finally going to see phoenix live in concert at the greek this week. the single off their new album was released on february 23, 2009.

sterling cooper is on the 23rd floor

2009-09-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

in season 1 of mad men, the elevator breaks and don draper and roger sterling have to walk up 23 flights to get back to their office.

b-school

2009-09-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

right after i read that 23% of HBS students came from consulting, stanford GSB offered me a 23% discount on books written by their professors.

guest blogger: horse power

2009-09-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

guest blogger: cullen (from the race track)

I just picked a horse to show because when I looked up his odds were 23 to 1. I wasn't even going to bet on the race until that point. The odds ended up 32 to 1 and he won the race. Weird.

naked truth

2009-09-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

at dinner, a friend asserted that naked juice's pomegranate-blueberry juice is better than POM's. naturally, a debate ensued. we argued over naked's dilution using juices other than pomegranate and blueberry. to settle the score, i checked online and discovered that, among other things, a pomegranate-blueberry naked juice contains 23 blueberries and 23 white grapes. naturally.

news round-up

2009-09-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

california's legislature is trying to pass legislation on prison reform, but the most recent version of the bill would leave us with a $233M deficit.

intercontinental hotels recently advertised $1 rates for a property in venice. they agreed to honor the mistaken honor for the 230 people who made reservations.

surveillance video from an apple store robbery is making the rounds on the internet. the thieves made off with 23 macbooks.

the federal government slapped pfizer with a record-breaking $2.3B in fines yesterday.

also yesterday, a suicide bomber in afghanistan killed 23 people.

brrr

2009-08-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

the minus 5 ice lounge in las vegas is kept at a chilly 23 degrees.

thank you note

2009-08-22T12:36:00.001-07:00

just turned on the tv and "as good as it gets" is on. helen hunt is writing a long thank you note. she's on page 23.

plug

2009-08-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

i was watching damages on hulu last weekend and kept seeing the (then mysterious) ad for the new chevy volt.

now there are billboards everywhere.

guest blogger: sudoku

2009-08-06T15:21:00.001-07:00

guest blogger: austin (via text message)

Man next to me on plane has a sudoku book -- volume 23. And if you sum the five digits directly under where it says that...23. Also, five is two plus three.

pro se

2009-07-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

i was just listening to the latest episode of this american life. ira is talking about people who represent themselves in court, which is becoming so common that the state of new york decided to open 23 help centers to provide support for these people.

baseketball

2009-07-13T19:08:00.001-07:00

i was driving home just now and there were two guys walking down my street. one was wearing a mattingly jersey and the other was wearing a vintage jordan jersey. walking together. side-by-side. down my street.

blimp

2009-07-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

the 23 and me blimp (actually, i think it's a zeppelin) was cruising around right above me on my way to the hollywood bowl the other week.

thanks to everyone else who's seen it and told me. twentythrees: they're everywhere!

also born on the 23rd

2009-07-11T02:09:00.001-07:00

i was walking down the stairs the other night, heading out to spectate at an ultimate frisbee game. suddenly, my jaw dropped because that's when i first noticed the number on the back of my favorite frisbee star's jersey.

beer floats

2009-07-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

i received an invitation to a beer float battle in LA. proceeds from the $23 entrance fee go to charity.

i could probably eat 23 maple-bacon biscuits

2009-07-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

this morning, i met some friends for a lavish breakfast at my favorite LA brunch spot, huckleberry cafe. the pastries there are mindblowingly good, and it's all because of pastry chef/owner zoe nathan. we're obsessed with her food, so it was like seeing a celebrity when she sat next to us to join a guest for breakfast. then i noticed the number card on her table...

20 pick 3

2009-07-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

i was helping a friend study for the GMAT today, and i realized that i don't remember permutation/combinations that well. so, i googled it and opened the first hit.

of course, permutation/combinations would be topic #23 in this study guide.

well, that's lucky

2009-06-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

i uncovered the following ad for an indian casino in the southwest airlines magazine during last weekend's epic travels across the west coast. 23 appears on this page no fewer than ten times.

wall street

2009-06-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

wall street was the featured film at last week's girls' night. i was not surprised to learn that $23 was the key price per share at the crux of the movie's climax.

my boyfriend's girlfriend

2009-06-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

apparently my dream man has a new lady. and the tabloids have 23 new photos of them. shoot!

venetian art

2009-06-22T23:16:00.001-07:00

my doctor's office is in santa monica, and the walls are decorated with paintings of local beach sites. i noticed this when i looked up at the big one in the waiting room and saw that the painting was titled "Venice V23." the painting includes several kayaks sitting on the beach, and "V23" is painted on the side of one of the boats.

workin' up a sweat

2009-06-22T23:14:00.000-07:00

i was at the gym today, and i noticed the tv in front of me was set to channel 23 (permanently displayed in the corner of the screen). right after i made this observation, an ad for the honda pilot came on. it gets 23 mpg.

economic crisis

2009-06-22T23:10:00.001-07:00

california has a $23 billion deficit.

open positions

2009-06-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

a friend got laid off from myspace today, and i went to the mattel website to see if they have any open positions here in LA. they have 23 open positions.

guest blogger: 23 editions

2009-06-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

guest blogger: zoe

I saw on goodreads that there are 23 editions of your favorite book. Duh.

23 seconds in...

2009-06-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

i made my national acting debut on the home shopping network a few months ago. i played a surprised co-worker -- very compelling performance.

i just got one of the videos of footage from the show. not sure where to find me? my first appearance is at 00:23.

it's the little things that count

2009-06-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

i spent a while today looking for an important article, and when i finally found an archive of it, i discovered that it was on p.23 of the book.

a friend sent an email asking me to join her for a 10K run. registration fees are discounted to $23 per person if we sign up early.

had to fill out a form at work today to get my pay statements electronically. there's some special code that we were supposed to find out our pay stub to input into this website. mine was 23.

lotto winner

2009-06-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

south dakota rancher wins $232 million in the lottery. he's 23. he also lives on 320-acre ranch.

just ask hurley -- the money's probably cursed.

the breast cancer (twenty) 3-day

2009-06-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

my friend just send me a request to support her in her 3-day breast cancer walk. her donation goal? $2,300.

dog fight

2009-06-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

i love frank deford's commentary on NPR. this morning he was talking about michael vick (former NFL player busted for dog fighting).

quote from frank:

Did you know, for example, that since [Vick] was indicted in 2007, twenty-three tougher state and federal laws dealing with dogfighting have either been enacted or strengthened?

well, i would have guessed that, i suppose.

another athlete

2009-05-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

i was at a party this weekend, and my friend received a signed baseball jersey as a gift. i saw the gift exchange from across the room, but i could tell he was stoked. as he excitedly put it on, i was thinking about jordan and beckham, and i thought to myself, "i just bet the number on the back of this jersey will be #23."

of course, i was right.

guest blogger: sister act

2009-05-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

guest blogger: zoe

I was just watching "Sister Act," and Sister Marie Clarence is running from the bad guys at the very end. She chooses to hide at a crowded roulette table. She turns to the gentlemen to the right, and suggests "Red 23."

Everyone bets on it...

page 23 of bucky's autobiography

2009-05-24T16:07:00.001-07:00

i subscribe to comics.com, and they send me a get fuzzy cartoon every day. my gmail auto-archives them, and i noticed at had 23 unread comics today, so i read them to catch up. this was among them:

shy that way

2009-05-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

i was just humming an obscure song i haven't heard in a long time. i opened up itunes to listen to it. the song is on an album called "twenty three."

small world of favorites

2009-05-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

dave eggers (one of my favorite writers) won the TED prize at the 2008 TED conference (annual conference put on by one of my favorite organizations). he gave a fabulously entertaining and inspiring speech about founding 826National (one of my favorite non-profits) in front of the offices of his other brainchild, mcsweeney's (one of my favorite publishers).

in his speech, eggers encourages others to find creative ways to support their local schools. he started the website once upon a school to collect 1,000 stories of everyday people helping schools in their communities. my story was selected to be featured on the website.

it's story #23.

coda: i just checked the website. they've collected 230 stories so far.

protecting my prostate

2009-05-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

i just got a bottle of pom pills. the package says the product is backed by $23 million in research on its health benefits.

digits

2009-05-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

my extension at work is x8323. it was randomly assigned to me.

product placement

2009-05-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

my company's product placement newsletter came out today. in the email, only one piece of text is bolded:

"...our total estimated media exposure was up 23% vs. Q1!"

23 and me

2009-05-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

yesterday, at happy hour, my coworker was excitedly telling a story about a woman who started a company that will take your cheek swab and use it to analyze your ancestory.

"it's called 23 and me," she says casually. "we should totally do it!"

of course we should.

picture in picture

2009-05-13T18:10:00.001-07:00

got lunch today. my order was #23 (obviously). i took out my phone and snapped a picture of the receipt to post here. my phone automatically numbers the photos i take, so of course this would happen:

of all the reports...

2009-05-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

i just got off the phone with my dad. during our conversation he cited a bogus statistic and challenged me to google it if i didn't believe it. i googled the topic, clicked on the first link, and it brought me to this report (which, incidentally, refuted his statistic):

D23

2009-05-12T18:23:00.001-07:00

i got a disneyland magazine in the mail today (who knows why). i was walking to the recycling bin to throw it out, and i decided to flip it open to see what exactly could be inside the disneyland magazine. this is what i opened it to:

guest blogger: bridge of the 23 camels

2009-05-08T14:19:00.001-07:00

guest blogger: MOM

mom lives in interior british columbia, and we have family in the tiny town of lillooet.

I just bought a book about the BC Interior, and I was reading about the old wooden bridge in Lillooet. It was built for the camel wagons to cross. What is the name of said bridge? Bridge of the 23 Camels.

Of course it is.

sydney morning news

2009-05-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

i turned on the tv the other morning to watch the morning news. they were doing a report on australia's projected deficits until 2012 (2+0=2, 1+2=3).

just as i tuned in, the opposition leader was bemoaning the financial indiscretions of the leadership. "23 billion dollars borrowed and given away!" he lamented. as he said this, the time in the bottom right corner was 6:23 AM. in the bottom left corner, they were flipping through major cities to share the day's weather.

at that moment, it showed the weather for sydney: 23 degrees.

later in the report they talked about the recent crackdown on a local hell's angels gang. 123 hell's angels bikers had been arrested.

sydney subway stations

2009-05-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

i was in the wynyard train station in sydney, and the pillars throughout the station are plastered with ads for HSBC. their campaign website: www.hsbcjersey23.com.au

sports bar for lunch

2009-04-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

went to a bar for lunch, and when i looked up at the tv, a rugby match was on. sydney was getting beat 0-23.

when the rugby game was over, the station switched to the baseball game between st. louis and atlanta. who was at bat? brian barden, the cardinals' #23.

swine flu

2009-04-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

when i turned on the tv this morning, they were talking about the first and only person thus far to die from swine flu in the united states. he was 23 months old.

republicans

2009-04-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

the first article i read when i woke up this morning was about the dwindling ranks of the republican party. "less than one in four identify as republican," read the headline. turns out, it's exactly 23%.

hotel room

2009-04-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

i checked into my hotel this morning and was upgraded to a suite on the top floor. my room number? 23, of course!

great barrier reef

2009-04-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

i'm going to the great barrier reef this weekend, and in preparation, i went to the sydney aquarium last night. they have a whole exhibit on the GBR, and i stopped to read the introductory passage. in the first few sentences, i learned that the GBR covers 2,300 km of coast line and 230,000 square kilometers of ocean.

more internet oddities

2009-04-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

i just checked my gmail, and i had 23 unread items in my inbox and 23 unread items in my spam folder.

then, i went to a statistics website where i needed to download a report from a list of many reports. how big was the specific report i needed? 23KB, of course.

i haven't even been here 6 hours (2x3 hours)...

2009-04-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

once we landed in sydney, the customs agent directed me to kiosk #23. of course!

i got to work and in the office i'm working in, there's a large print of a sailboat on the wall. the date printed at the bottom? 1923.

halfway through our meeting, the VP opened up a trade magazine to show us a particular page. after leafing through it for a minute or so, he finally spread the magazine out on the table and pointed to a large graphic in the middle of the page which read, "23 Direct Port Calls."

flight to sydney

2009-04-26T19:07:00.001-07:00

my flight to sydney left from gate 123A (A is for Anneke, obviously):

once i was settled into my seat, i put on my headphones to listen to a podcast. when i looked into my lap, this is what i saw:

my baggage

2009-04-24T15:06:00.001-07:00

i booked a flight with qantas airlines today, and they informed me that my checked baggage can have a maximum weight of 23kg.

then, i booked a flight with virgin blue airlines and they informed me that my carry-on bag can have a maximum depth of 23cm.

23rd street

2009-04-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

just logged into facebook quickly and saw this on the top of my feed.

POM complainers

2009-04-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

POM Wonderful can't advertise their product with the term "cheat death" anymore. why? because 23 people complained.

south african body politic

2009-04-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

yesterday i heard a story on NPR about south africa's historic election. how many registered voters does south africa have? 23 million.

roulette has the worst odds in vegas

2009-04-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

every time i go to vegas, red 23 comes through for me at the roulette table. i went with my sister in january, and upon arrival i told her about the last time i was in vegas and how i threw down money on red 23 as we were walking to the cab and won big right before going home. she thought it was a silly story, but entertained my fascination with the number nevertheless.

at the end of our trip, after losing most of my money at the craps tables, i grumpily told my sister we should head back to the hotel room to get our bags and go to the airport. there was a roulette table on the way to the airport, so, on a lark, i throw down some money on red 23 -- only red 23.

"you're dumb," my sister says.

i can't watch the wheel turn, but my sister follows the ball intently. i'm looking away but hear her gasp, and my gaze returns to the table just in time to see the dealer placing her glass marker on top of my little pile of chips. on red 23.

needless to say, i won all my money back and left vegas a happy camper. again.

what is twentythreesome?

2009-04-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

on this day, the 23rd of the month, i am finally going to start a blog to catalogue how the number 23 is rampant in my life.

i was born on the 23rd to a woman also born on the 23rd. as long as i can remember, this number has appeared over and over in my life. if there's going to be a number, it's going to be 23. seriously, it's weird. don't believe me? wikipedia can help.

disclaimer: as a woman of math and science, i realize that this blog is irrational. i understand apophenia and the confirmation bias, and i know that after reading this blog, you will probably encounter the baader-meinhof phenomenon. deep down inside, i know i'm not being stalked by a prime number.

but i'm going to write about it anyway.