09-09-09

You gotta love tomorrow's date - 09/09/09. Those repeating digits aren't going to happen again until January 1st, 2101, when it will be 01/01/01. Well, except for next year when it will be 10/10/10 -- oh yeah, and the year after that when it will be 11/11/11 --- and let's not forget the year after that when it will be 12/12/12. But after that, it's not going to happen for a real long time.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. Even the creators of the iPod got in on it by moving their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the unique date today. Focus Features is releasing their new film called "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, today on the 9th.

Cultures around the world are so superstitious, and while I don't ascribe to any of that nonsense, it's sometimes good to know what other people believe. If nothing else, it's at the very least, semi-interesting.

Some cultures think the number '9' is lucky; others see something like 09/09/09 as an ominous warning. Certain cultures associate the number '9' with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative side.

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number '9.' Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. China pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number '8' during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. In the Chinese language, '8' sounds very much like the word 'wealth.' But '9' is important to them as well. Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number '9,' which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however. In Japanese, the word for '9' sounds very similar to the word for suffering, second only to the number '4,' which sounds like the word for death.

Here in the USA, many hotels omit the 13th floor because so many people consider it unlucky. In Japan, it's the 9th floor that is many times missing.

Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician said the number '9' had all kinds of special properties. Actually, any grade-school math student would know that to be true. In fact, the number '9' always intrigued me as a big nerd in math class. Here's why:

The sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. Meaning: 9x3=27 and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558 --- and --- 5+5+8=18 (a multiple of 9) --- and if you break down the number '18' - 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year. Guess what 2 + 5 +2 equals ... yep ... .'9.' Freaky, huh?

As for me, I love the number '9.' I'm '49' right now, and wish I could just keep that '9' at the end of my age - but alas, the odometer will soon roll over.

Keep the faith.

And be blessed.