It's a Magic Number....

Three is a magic number...according to Schoolhouse Rock.  (Don't even try to pretend that you didn't learn everything you ever knew about politics from the "I'm just a bill." guy.)  Back when cartoons were only on weekends, and they were more than 30 minute advertisements for action figures and playing cards, I used to love to sit and watch all of those catchy tunes and feel like I was being given an education.  I learned that if you had eleven fingers you were a weird kid.  I learned that conjunctions were best written on railroad cars.  And I further learned that 3 was a magic number.  I cannot, for the life of me, remember why it is magic but it is. 

I started thinking about numbers today when Kristiana, my favorite daughter, (...my only daughter for those who like to quibble...The root of which is 'To Quib'  meaning to try to make a working pen out of feathers on a live ostrich, but let's not start quibbling over verbs) became my twenty fourth follower on my blog.  When I asked her why she decided to sign up today she said, ...no, it's too great.  I get teary eyed whenever I think about it.  The raw emotion, the wonderful bond between a father and daughter, the selfless giving and common understanding of a father's needs...She said, and I quote, "It was either that or do math."  Stop!  Stop!  I know!  Forgive me while I take a moment.  Ok, I'm back.  It was either that or do math.  Do you think I should trademark the phrase?  I mean when Hallmark gets hold of this sentiment their stocks will soar!  It boggles the mind (the root of this is based in the Viking tongue 'to bog'.  meaning to put your hands in the air and shake it like you just don't care).

Sniff...back to the reason I am writing tonight.  I have been stuck at 23 followers for the longest time. This is not a problem (even though I visited a blog that had over 2000 followers...but I'm not bitter) Not to mention the fact that 23, in all of its glory, is a prime number!  It is the number of ingredients in a can of Dr Pepper (the finest drink known to human kind) but it is, by definition, divisible by nothing but one and itself.  For a numbers guy like me that is akin to torture.  Not fingernails on a chalkboard kind of torture...real, purposely missing the final note in a Verdi Opera torture!  (I'm pretty sure that is specifically prohibited in the Geneva Convention.)  Add to all this, that I am a bit OCD in behaviors and attitudes and I would say that we have been terribly lucky that I haven't needed to be sedated nightly.  I considered following my blog myself but that just smacked of desperation.  (and if you have ever been smacked with a desperation you'll try like the dickens to avoid a re-occurrence!)

Well, now I do not need to worry about that any more.  I mean think about it.  24?  It's divisible by 1 (of course) 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24!  talk about versatility!  If someone were to send me 24 cookies, for instance, I would be able to share with any number of friends equally and easily!  Of course people send me cookies all the time and I share them with nobody...but I could!  That's the point. 

So now I am resting comfortably at 24 and I don't have to worry about those pesky prime numbers again until 29!  At my current rate I will be safe for months.  At this point if I am somehow picked as a Blog of Note I am doomed!  It seems that whenever a blog is picked as blog of note the follower board lights up like a, well, like a board that lights up a lot!  That's what! 

All right it is late, I am tired, I am floating on an easily-divisible cloud, and I need to get some sleep.  For now I will just dream of people sending me sets of 24 cookies...I'm allergic to Macadamia nuts.