The 7th ...and the Meanings of Numbers

desiderata.english

Some random thoughts this Sunday morn after a continental breakfast of French toast with bacon and egg. Even a socialist-leaning writer (I deem myself one, you are welcome to beg to disagre, I'd hear thee out!) can indulge in some bourgeoise living, no?

I recently read on close fellow Blogger's post titled "The Fifth Nail, The Sixth Seal" (http://yancorner.blogspot.com) of July 9, 2005, and advise: Go read Yan's short post and my comment, a dictatorial -- not royal, remember I'm socialist inclined? -- command on a lazy Sunday!


I was intrigued by the significance of numbers after reading her entry, also triggered off earlier by a columnist's observation that a person would consider himself lucky to have made in his lifetime a number of friends spanning the number of fngers on both his hands. I echoed his views in one post later, which prompted Yan to ask, like the curious cat (not a DOG this time); what number am I?

I told her in all confidentiality, but I breached it here this morn, without permission, because I feel friendship is to be proud of, to be treasured, and most of all, to be made public.

My candid reply to Yan: "You are SEVEN, and I hope to gather a few more, including via the Blogosphere, so that I can proceed to counting the toes down there."

I sought my counsellor, Mr Coww, well versed in theology and Chinese literature, for a briefing on the subject of numbers. He said this world leads off with numero uno -- which is number ONE, representing the Almighty God. He created the world in SEVEN days, with the final day set for rest, which had motivated my posting Never on Sunday in that spirit. (Do I digress here?)

Coww is a man of vast experience -- the Chinese would term as one who has eaten more salt than me (having eaten) rice.

In Christianity, the number "3" signifies the Holy Trinity -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

And to Chinamen (term used here endearingly tho' some might object, but this is a free world, OK? Another Rhetorical Q!) traditional throughout the world, the number "8" is an all time favourite. Beg thy pardon, I dunno what it signifies, Consult your fengshui master, will you. I only know some towkays wouldn't mind paying hundreds thousand dollars for a vehcile number plate numbered 8888. Plaes no trade-in for 4444 (do you see the seegnificance here? No, see your seefu fortune teller for some paid advice. I am really suffering from exhaustion working on the SEVEN7 series ruminating on the London bombings and the face of terrorism, with poor Sabrina roped in for the ride! which ended yeaterday.


I am a learner here, so if other readers can offer their views of the significance of numbers from 1 to 20, please write me via Comments, or directly at: chongyl2000@yahoo.com, I promise thee, my mouth is unsealed with thy sacreds.

I understand "7" is indeed a favourite number with many members of the Homo sapiens, me included. But when I told Yan her was SEVEN with me, I had the following in mind -- Is it GoOD or NotSoGood? I'll never opt for Bad as an option here -- sometimes I can be dictatorial -- you're allowed to, occasionally despite one's socialist bent, or is it cant?

As I suffer a little from Writer's Block now, I just took the "lazy" route by googling for one of My Favourite Westerns;I dunno if this amounts to Plagiarism, but I do attribute.So, my dear readers, especially to Yan, here goes, my yarn:

All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review


THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN


Starring: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen
Director: John Sturges
Rated: NR
RunTime: 126 Minutes
Release Date: October 1960
Genres: Action, Suspense, Western

*Also starring: Eli Wallach, Horst Buchholz, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter


An exerpt from a Review by Dragan Antulov

""***In former Yugoslavia, generally speaking, the best or the most popular television shows were produced by Serbian state television. However, there were shows produced by other republics' studios that successfully competed with Belgrade television. SMOGOVCI, children's show about Zagreb family, produced by Croatian television, was one of such examples, which turned into the most popular and longest running television series in these areas. Secret of its success, together with good script and acting, was clever use of pop culture references. Among them, the most obvious one was musical theme used in the show's opening credits - "borrowed" by Elmer Bernstein. The theme, which is now always associated with the genre of western thanks to Marlborough commercials, was written for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, 1960 film by John Sturges and one of the most popular westerns of all time.

The plot of the film isn't original, since THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN happens to be the remake of SEVEN SAMURAI, 1954 classic by great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. The characters and situations are mostly the same, but the setting is different. First we are introduced to a Mexican village, populated by simple but hard-working farmers. Fruits of their labour are, however, always being taken away by the large group of bandits led by Calvera (played by Eli Wallach) which comes every year. After the latest visit, the villagers had enough and desperately want to get rid of such menace. But, since they lack weapons and skills to resist the bandits, village leaders ask the Old Man (played by Vladimir Sokoloff) for an advice. He tells them to gather the every coin and other precious belongings they still have in the village and head across US border in order to hire gunslingers. They follow his advice and stumble upon a man who fits their criteria - Chris Adams (played by Yul Brynner), efficient gunslinger who is noble enough to accept their job offer. He quickly begins assembling his team, whose members agree to follow him for reasons different than money, since the pay is low. Chico (played by Horst Buchholz), the youngest of them, is not gunfighter at all, and wants to follow the group only to learn their deadly trade. The group - now numbering seven - arrives in the village and starts preparing for the inevitable showdown.***""

PS; Edited. and updated at 7.17pm (from ORIGINAL TIME of 11.55AM, not PM!, see, even Socialists are Human!;)), on the 17th day in the seventh month of the year 2005. I remember Enid Blyton made millions from the Famous Five, and more millions from SecretSEVEN. Why are certain writers so lucky, and others leaning towards paupership? A reawrd for leaning towards the left, NOT TO THE RIGHT? This post is written in just jest, so with poetic licence I might have lampooned, or lambasted, or bombasted a few, maybe seven of my friends for not mentioning their names. Minta Maaf, eh!