Ask a person (or a group of people) for a funny number, and chances are they'll come back with the same one (not "one," meaning (1), you know what number I'm talking about...). If there are other numbers that are funny, I'll be curious to hear about them. Perhaps there are synesthetes out there that, rather than seeing colors when they hear musical notes, hear jokes when they see numbers. That'd be interesting.
Back when I was in school for symphonic music, I was doing research on the composer György Ligeti, when I discovered that he had written, back in his (relative) youth, he had written a satirical piece against his home government, called something to the extent of "Hungarian Military March," and given the non-consecutive opus number of 69. And that was fifty-sixty years ago.
I'm not really sure how old I was when I first realized that numbers could be funny, though I'm sure it was in the form of saying "You're number one," while flipping someone the bird, which I perhaps learned about from the movie Top Gun. Not the part about saying "you're number one," but the part about flipping someone the bird. Top Gun also being the movie that inaugurated my love of beach volleyball (that's not true; I don't like beach volleyball). Nor was I particularly good at figuring out dirty phraseology (as an example, when I was 11 or 12, I thought the phrases was "getting ahead with that girl," not "getting head from that girl"), let alone numerology (as much as I enjoy swearing, it was until I befriended Nick during college (this biography/chronology might also be bullshit) that my vulgarities stumbled down into obscenties). This is all to say that, for writing an article on a site like Audioshocker.com, this is perhaps the most notable milestone that Culturology has yet reached.
Oh... 420 is a funny number. And 4:20 is a funny time of day (twice a day!). Don't know why I was so delayed in remembering that one. Therefore, Culturology hereby decrees that 6.0869565217391304347826 (repeating) is also a funny number. Perhaps the funniest number. You can learn more about this funny number by hiring a friend to dress in this costume. "The hat has a sign reading "420/69", which adds to the costume's authenticity." Authentic indeed (meaning, surely, that the hat being worn cost 420 pounds, 69 pence). Every so often, in critical/academic circles, the discourse can get all messed up in concerns about the authenticity of a given ethos (see, say, Theodor Adorno's The Jargon of Authenticity). I think if Adorno had been writing in the times of easily-purchased sexy polyester costumes, he'd have felt differently about existentialism's "radical inwardness" (if you know what I mean...).
If I have any hopes left for Culturology (and I don't, really), it's to get to a point where as many people read it as the number that it has--the next best reason for sticking by 6.0869565217391304347826 (repeating), 'cause I'm surely closer to having that number of readers than 69.
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