Among five digit numbers in high demand for Spain's $1.2 – Madre de Dios! – billion dollar Christmas lottery was 11901, the standard European dating for the World Trade Center devastation. The year of Spain's yuletide game was 2001.
It was certainly an insensitivity on the part of many macho players, if not a downright unChristian gambling strategy, following the WTC universal shocker. But, to tell the gambling truth, it was not unprecedented.
In fact, every time an airliner crashes, thousands of gamblers on both sides of the Atlantic play numbers relating to flights, times of departure, times of crash and — shudder — the number of passengers killed.
Given the odds, these numbers occasionally hit. Some gamblers think it more than a chance occurrence.
A timely issue of Fortean Times — named for author/collector of anomalies, oddments and coincidence, Charles Fort (1874 – 1932) — devotes several pages to some fascinating, if morbidly tainted, numerology about the WTC. Take note and play your next lottery accordingly.
FT's coverage includes a BBC Online item quoting physicist Frank Moscatelli, Swarthmore College, Penn., on the WTC destruction's magnitude: "The combined force of the attacks and subsequent collapse of buildings was about 6.8 x 10 to the power of 11 (hundred billion) joules, accurate to within 25 percent, the equivalent of 0.2 kilotons of TNT. The bomb dropped by America at Hiroshima had a force of 10 kilotons."
What's in a number? Take Moscatelli's "the power of 11" for example. According to Fortean Times, reporting on an email query following the WTC incinerations, there are rather curious number 11 parallels.
For a starter: September 11 is the 254 day of the year. (2+5+4=11). It was also highly, highly 911. Call Nine-Eleven! The first plane to hit was — are you ready! — Flight 11. The towers standing side by side resemble the number 11.
FT continues. "There were 111 days of the year still remaining. Also: New York was the eleventh state to join the United States." Here's more: New York City, Afghanistan, The Pentagon and bomber Ramzi Yousef all have 11 letters. Passengers on board flight 175: 65 (You do the final math.)
Also note that the ill-fated flights produced nearly sequential numbers: American Airline Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 93 (9+3=12); American Airlines Flight 77 (7+7=14).
It's 13 years later next week. Need we be reminded that 13 is not auspicious for good luck. Life, like the lottery, depends on the numbers we play, whether conventionally straight or gaily boxed (Keep your flight-of-fantasy fingers crossed, Mary!).
Parting Glances: 13 Years Next Week
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