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Does anyone know the origin of spotting & using 47 in films & TV?
I did hear it was something to do with an American college which had 47 steps to a building, & the students there started to spot 47s in popular fiction as well inserting it into their work where possible.
Has anyone else heard of this or any other explantion?
Posts: 372 | From: Marple, UK | Registered: Apr 2005
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InfraPurple, one workaround for URLs that don't work in UBB is tinyurl.com. Here is the 47 wiki.
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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Pomona College claims a math professor once 'proved' (in order to show some problems with proof, I think) that all numbers are equal to 47. Since then, Pomona College students have searched for 47 everywhere and I wouldn't be surprised if they find ways to slip it in.
I went to Pomona and that's the story we're told, along with a list of 47s, and the view of a leaded glass window which someone managed to reach and paint sections of to make a digital-readout style 47.
Posts: 457 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Jan 2006
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But I thought 42 was the answer to everything.
Oh, how cruel reality comes shattering down around me!
-------------------- They just don't make crazed, beserk robots like they used to. --Sheen Estevez, Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
If I manage to post something swipe-worthy that you would like to make your sig, you may do so with my blessing. Posts: 2486 | From: East Stroudsburg, PA | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Purple Iguana: But I thought 42 was the answer to everything.
Oh, how cruel reality comes shattering down around me!
"47 is 42, adjusted for inflation" - Rick Berman, as much as I loathe the quote the man.
47 appeared in virtually every modern Star Trek episode. It shouldn't be surprising that the writer who started the tradition graduated from Pomona...
-------------------- All along the untrodden paths of the future, I can see the footprints of an unseen hand. Posts: 6912 | From: Flanders | Registered: Jan 2004
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-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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I always thought the number 37 was the one that popped up everywhere. I know it's a running gag in Kevin Smith films, among other places.
Max "get back here!" Renn
-------------------- Sister Ann: DRIVE! DRIVE Crow T. Robot: Look, I'm already driving, there's no inherent quantity of driving that I can increase! If you want me to go faster, you should say so. Posts: 579 | From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Apr 2006
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Then there's "Weird Al" and his bit with the number 27...
-------------------- Come on, come on, we were once upon a time in love If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. - Meister Eckhart My Blog Posts: 7725 | From: Columbus, Ohio | Registered: Nov 2000
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I know 42 was from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, though Douglas Adams claimed he got the idea from a show in the late 1960s that some of the Pythons were in. It might have been At Last The 1948 show or Twice A Fortnight.
Posts: 372 | From: Marple, UK | Registered: Apr 2005
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Spotting "47" was common on the TV show Alias. I'd never heard of the number having any sort of cache before then.
-------------------- Someday I'll aquire wisdom, but for now, being a wise-ass will have to do. Posts: 90 | From: the Michigan/Ohio border | Registered: Jul 2005
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In the 'Fortean Times' a few years ago there was an article about spotting numbers. The number they said that kept cropping up was '27'. If you are told to look out for a number or word then suddenly you see them cropping up all over place.
-------------------- Andrew, Ware, England Posts: 1709 | From: Ware, England | Registered: Apr 2003
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-------------------- "Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for western civilization as it commits suicide." - Jerry Pournelle Posts: 14567 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jan 2002
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-------------------- I'm an excellent speller, but a lousy typist. "Just so you know, the words 'just' and 'cramps' - they don't go together." - Ginger Snaps Posts: 323 | From: Chandler, AZ | Registered: Oct 2003
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