Einstein is one of my heroes. There are many reasons, one
of them being the fact that he and I share a birthday. Einstein was
born 1879. I was born in 1952. He died in 1955. We had a three year
overlap. And as of this writing, I have not died yet. Of course, the
web and the blog being sort of timeless, that may only be the truth for
a given amount of time. He lived to be 73. He lives on in many ways,
through his writing, his theories, and of course, in calendars and
pictures and exhibits. And in textbooks, too.
Math, the concepts
of space and time, philosophy, and communications were very important
to Einstein. He also appreciated his position as a player of note on
the world stage, and had a strong sense of altruism. World peace,
harmony among nations and mankind, and the pursuit of good occupied his
mind, his thoughts, his writings and his actions. He was no slouch.
I
do not lionize Einstein. He had his faults. He was human. Actually,
these aspects make him more of a hero to me than some glorified,
exalted types. He was real, lived a real life, and is a person who will
always have a place in history.
We share a March 14th birthday.
I could bore you with other facts about additional things he and I
share, but that sort of minutia is probably only of interest to me, and
not worth posting.
But it is of note that he and I both share a fascination with numbers and semantics.
So
this is my most numeric of birthdays. I was born in 1952, and today I
am 52 years old. 52 is a special number of sorts. As a measurement, as
a certain manner of groupings, and just as one of those numbers (like 7
or 9) that possesses special qualities.
52 Weeks in a Year
52 Cards in a Deck (akin, of course, to the childís game, ì52 Pick Upî)
Number 52 on the AFI Top 100 Films: From Here to Eternity (which had a 1953 debut)
52: The number of Home Runs hit by Mickey Mantle (No. 7) in 1956, when he won the Triple Crown.
52: Number of Days in a Life Cycle. There are 7 cycles per year. Read all about that here [1].
There are 52 white notes on the keyboard of a piano.
52, for those looking for the dark side, is Bad Luck Quadrupled: (13 x 4) = 52
The B-52 is a well known aircraft.
The B-52ís were a well-known rock band [2].
52 inches is the minimum height required for many theme park rides.
Properties of the number 52
Symbolism
ï Represent the fight, factor of evolution for creatures, incarnated in the Cosmos, according to R. Allendy.
ï
Represent the material food - providing from the earth and the water,
by opposition to the spiritual food, that the incarnated man has to eat
to live in the matter.
Bible
ï Uzziah reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. (2 K 15,2)
General
ï
The ancient Mexicans divided the time in periods of 52 years, waiting
the end of the world to the term of each of they. It is the number of
the Aztec century, 13 x 4, called the small cycle. We find it in the
ligature of the years for the duration of the suns, in particular the
first and the fourth sun, which have a duration of 676 years, are
considered as being the most perfect since they contain only the two
numbers 13 and 52 whose product gives 676.
ï One of the Mexican
games, named the patolli, kind of game of Goose, has a diagram which is
a cross divided into 52 boxes, figuring the number of years of the
divinatory cycle and solar.
ï The 52 treaties of Nag Hammadi
(texts or sacred writings) discovered on 1945 in the village of the
High Egypt, hidden in a cave dug in the mountain of the "Djebel el
Tarif". The place is called Nag Hammadi.
ï The 52 weeks of the solar year.
Gematria
ï In Hebrew, the numerical value of the word Elohim is 52 by using the gematria in "n": 1+12+5+10+24=52.
Occurrence
ï The number 52 is used 6 times in the Bible.
Federalist # 52,
from The Federalist Papers, is an essay by either Alexander Hamilton or
James Madison. The gist of it can be found in the second paragraph:
The
definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a
fundamental article of republican government. It was incumbent on the
convention, therefore, to define and establish this right in the
Constitution. To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the
Congress, would have been improper for the reason just mentioned. To
have submitted it to the legislative discretion of the States, would
have been improper for the same reason; and for the additional reason
that it would have rendered too dependent on the State governments that
branch of the federal government which ought to be dependent on the
people alone. To have reduced the different qualifications in the
different States to one uniform rule, would probably have been as
dissatisfactory to some of the States as it would have been difficult
to the convention. The provision made by the convention appears,
therefore, to be the best that lay within their option.
Hamilton went on to open The Bank of New York and founded The New York
Post. Given how those two entities treat their customers these days, my
bet is that Madison wrote this, not Hamilton.
52 Percent
of Voters Don't Want to See Bush Re-Elected (44% Do), 37 Percent
Strongly Want to See Him Re-Elected, 47 Percent Strongly Do Not
(January, 2004 Newsweek poll [3])
52%: The margin by which Kerry leads Dubya as of March 8th, 2004. This 8-point lead was among likely voters in the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll [4].
Atomic Number 52
- a brittle silver-white metalloid element that is related to selenium
and sulfur; it is used in alloys and as a semiconductor; occurs mainly
as tellurides in ores of copper and nickel and silver and gold
Te, tellurium chemical element, element - any of the more than 100
known substances (of which 92 occur naturally) that cannot be separated
into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute
all matter graphic tellurium, sylvanite - a silver-white mineral
consisting of silver gold telluride; a source of gold in Australia and
America
telluride - any binary compound of tellurium with other more
electropositive elements
52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life [5]. David Allen, dubbed The ìGuru of Personal Productivity,î wrote a book with this title. But did it sell 52,000 copies?
52 Ways To Have Fun, Fantastic Sex - A Guidebook For Married Couples [6]
was written by Joyce J. Penner and Clifford L. Penner These two
apparently do nothing else but write books about sex. Those who can,
do. Those who canít . . .
Page 52 of The Stash Tea catalog [7]
is the back cover. Nice picture of a teapot, cup and saucer. And some
things a Diabetic probably should avoid like the plague.
FCC Auction 52: Direct Broadcast Satellite Service begins on July 14th of this year. You can read all about the auction here [8]. This ainít no eBay!
52 Feet: The length at which Blue Whale [9] (Balaenoptera musculus)
calves go out on their own in the great seas. Calves nurse for 7 to 8
months and are weaned when they reach 52 feet (16 m) in length. At that
time they weigh about 23 tons (20,900 kg).
In the 1952
Rose Bowl Parade the winner was California State Polytechnic Collegeís
float, featuring the theme: A Free World Through Education. It made a nice picture [10], what with the book made of flowers on that car, the pages declaring Learn, Serve, Earn, Live!
52nd Street ñ Jazz Boulevard [11] in New York. Also an album title [12] by Billy Joel.
52 Pick-Up, a wonderful thriller with the kind of dialogue one comes to expect from author Elmore Leonard.
Some significant Episode 52s from television:
WKRP In Cincinnati: Episode 52 Season 3 ìA Mile in My Shoesî Herb's jury duty causes job shuffling at WKRP.
The Larry Sanders Show: Episode 52,
"Jeannie's Visit" Larry's second wife Jeannie surprises Larry and the
entire staff by coming to Los Angeles for an unannounced visit. Jeannie
is hurt when Larry blows her off in favor of supermodel Tatjana, so she
and Hank go for a few drinks, which leads them back to Jeannie's hotel
room. They promise each other to keep it a secret, but Hank crumbles
under the guilt and confesses everything to Larry during rehearsal.
Larry is furious with Hank, leading to a competition between the two
for Jeannie. But she has some news of her own for the dueling suitors.
Naked City: Episodes 52,
February 1, 1961 "A Hole in the City" - After holding up an armored
car, gang leader Lewis Nunda (Robert Duvall) and his cronies hide out
at the home of their leader's aunt (Sylvia Sidney), where Nunda
painfully confronts his past.
Seinfeld: Episode 52,
November 25, 1992 When their flight home gets canceled, Jerry &
Elaine board another flight, the latter gets cramped into coach and
Jerry parties in 1st class with a model. George and Kramer go between
JFK and La Guardia to pick them up. When they settle on an airport
George meets a convict and Kramer sees a man who owes him $240 from
years ago.
The Wonder Years: Episode 52, November
7, 1990 Paul's little awkward sister, Debbie, has a crush on Kevin. His
mind, however, is more set on a cheerleader, Deanna Delgado. Paul is to
take Debbie to her first dance, but then speads the rumor Kevin would
do it. When she asks, he cannot say no. Excited Mr. Pfeiffer brings
Paul to the football game and Kevin to the ball. When the souvenir
picture are to be taken, Kevin walks out to the pool in the garden.
Paul, Doug and Randy come, tell Kevin that Deanna has stuffed her
blouse and leave. Then Debbie comes out, is disappointed and drops her
precious earring into the pool. Kevin gets it and gets the picture
taken. [no Winnie]
Sex And The City: Episode 52,
"What's Sex Got to Do With It?" Miranda has been abstaining from sex.
She has been craving Chocolate as the replacement. tarting with an
innocent eclaire and moving up to an expensive chocolate cake that she
decides to overlook. Get out the betty crocker and the can of frosting!
Carrie is having mind blowing sex with the jazz guy. She is ready to
take the relationship to a new level. Talking! She decides he has ADHD.
He has a one track mind (sex and jazz) Not much else going on upstairs.
She wants to hold out for a relationship which includes both good sex
and good conversation. Miranda is trying to stop the chocolate frenzy
by throwing the cake in the garbage. Later it doesn't prevent her from
eating it directly out of the garbage can. Samantha learns about what
women want in her new relationship with Maria. Charlotte becomes upset
that Trey has not asked her to move back in. She storms out with soapy
hair, back to her own apartment. The next day Trey asks her to move in
and she says yes! Measure up the "John Henry" Charlotte!
The Simpsons: Episode 52,
February 20, 1992. It's softball season for the Springfield Nuclear
Plant, and Homer has a magic weapon: His homemade bat. And it works,
winning all the games on their way to the finals. But the final macth
is against arch rivals Shelbyville, and Burns makes a bet with the
Shelbyville plant owner, Aristole Amadopolis, for $1,000,000 that his
team will win. To hedge the bet, Burns sends Smithers around America to
get the world's best softball players to play for his team, leaving
Homer and his buddies redundant. Featuring the voices of real-life
MLBers Jose Canseco, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, Don Mattingly, Steve
Sax, Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey Jr. & Darryl Strawberry
as Themselves. Also, Terry Cashman as Singer for "We're Talkin'
Softball."
Cheers: Episode 52, October 22, 1984.
ìDiane Meets Momî When Frasier asks Diane to meet his mother, she is
nervous at first. But her fears aren't calmed when the senior Crane
threatens Diane's life. Also, it's Norm's birthday, and Sam breaks out
some champagne to celebrate the big day, only to have the cork hit
Norm.