2007-12-31

Misc...

These stories interest me:

Dolly the sheep pioneer knighted (actual headline)

Wow. The Queen is now knighting enterprising sheep these days? (boom tish)

US town escapes 666 phone prefix.
A town in the US state of Louisiana is to be allowed to change its telephone prefix so that residents can avoid a number many associate with the Devil.

Christians in Reeves have been unhappy since the early 1960s about being given the prefix, 666 - traditionally known as the Biblical "number of the beast".

For the next three months, households will be able to change the first three digits of their phone numbers to 749.

Mayor Scott Walker said CenturyTel's decision was "divine intervention".

However, he admitted it helped that Louisiana's two senators had also lobbied for the change with the phone company and the state Public Service Commission.
Totally ridiculous. Poor exegesis + superstitions = irrational fear of numbers. I wonder if any of these people have read what is on page 666 of their bibles? Or ever read Isaiah 66.6 and wondered if they should ask their pastor if this is the Bible's "evil verse" or "evil page"?

2 comments:

apodeictic said...

Talking about Bibles and page 666 thereof: In the opening credits of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer a number of images flash very quickly across the screen and one of them is a page of a book in German written in the old Gothic script (Fraktur) which is meant to look kind of cool -- and going with the show's theme maybe even other-worldly or 'occultish'. Viewed in real time it's impossible to tell what the words say or where they come from. But with the DVD it's possible to slow it right down and even pause it at the right moment. It's a book opened at p 666 and the text is Biblical. What's surprising is that when you start reading the text it becomes obvious that the passage is Ex 32:1 followed by some commentary. Not even study bibles with copious notes take 666 pages to get from Gen 1 to Ex 32. But in the upper margin the words "Montag nach ..." [Monday after ...] appear which suggests to me it's an excerpt from a lectionary or part of some Bible reading plan.

Interesting.

Ron said...

Dear Mr Oversight
Could you please reserve prefix 777 for me or do you think 888 would be better.

Dolly etc - now that is a difficult construe!

My fav headline was Sydney Daily Mirror "Chichester Capsized ?" The mad English yachtsman was out in heavy seas and of course it was always possible but he hadn't so the question mark said it all.

Anyhow Happy New Year ... Ron on 118 (liked that)

Remember 888 will be the day Chinese everywhere will buy a lottery ticket so ONE of them must win and prove 8 is lucky. Mind you none of my mates was anywhere near it in 8888