LINDSAY Fox once said the difference between three billion dollars and what the rest of us earn is just a series of noughts.
“Three dollars, three hundred dollars, three thousand, three hundred thousand, three million — it’s a series of noughts,” the trucking magnate proclaimed.
While his philosophy sounds simple, good luck putting it into use next time you ask your boss for a raise or when you are applying for a loan at the bank.
Years ago I gave up an offer of a university place in accounting to take on a journalism cadetship, but even I know the difference between 100 and 110. The answer, of course, is 153. And the difference between 110 and 120? Easy — 244.
The answers are what it will cost you to pay a red light or speed camera fine if you nudge your car’s speedo towards those higher figures.
Numbers are one of the first things parents teach their toddlers — they’re a natural progression from toilet training and colours.
And people tend to covet some numbers more than others, such as their birth date, the number of people in their family or their wedding anniversary — if they can remember it.
I know my mother was upset for weeks after getting a copy of her birth certificate so she could apply for a passport.
Having celebrated her birthday on March 12 for many years (yes Mum, I know you will be reading this — and no, I won’t be giving your age away), she was horrified to discover she was actually born on March 10. No wonder
she’s never won Tattslotto.
A quick analysis of Tattslotto results shows the number eight ball has been sucked up into the machine (under strict government supervision), down through the pipe and into its winning number resting place the most frequently. The next most successful numbers are 40, 1 and 7, while the numbers drawn the least frequently are 27, 30, 17, 44 and 37.
It’s probably fortunate that the eight ball is drawn the most often because it seems to be the most popular number for many people, particularly in Chinese culture, where the word for eight (ba) sounds similar to the word that means prosper or wealth.
The Chinese government even declared the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony would start on August 8 at 8:08pm in the hope they would be successful.
Many Asian countries believe the number four is unlucky because it sounds like the word for death.
In fact, many electronic companies such as Nokia and Canon skip that particular number in their mobile phone and camera series to avoid upsetting sales figures.
Many high-rise buildings also skip the numbers four, 14, 24 etc, when they are labelling floors — very similar to number 13 in some Western countries.
This unlucky 13 superstition actually has a name — triskaidekaphobia (I can’t pronounce it either) while the specific and irrational fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Appare ntly Frigga was the horse Goddess associated with Friday.
In Italy, the number 17 is unlucky because when it is written into Roman digits — XVII — it can easily be rearranged to “VIXI”, which in Latin means “I lived” or, put simply, “I’m dead”.
Lufthansa airline goes so far as to omit the numbers 13 and 17 from all its seating rows so as not to upset superstitious passengers.
Today’s column was inspired by the debacle over Warrnambool City Council’s decision to renumber Gateway Road from south to north, meaning all the existing property numbers will change, with odd-numbered houses now on the western side of the road and even-numbered along the east.
Residents will have to buy new numbers for their houses and the huge number 40 graphic motif on the facade of Wannon Water’s multimillion-dollar headquarters will have to be changed, at their customers’ expense, to number 25.
This bureaucracy gone mad has more repercussions than people may realise.
Residents will now have to change their favourite Tattslotto numbers. Their whole feng shui will be out of whack.
Their kids will walk home and find their pet Labrador has turned into a Maltese Schitzu, their red brick veneer house rendered in a Mediterranean terracotta shade and a new mum inside cooking dinner.
Worse still, the people at number 13 may have to learn how to pronounce triskaidekaphobia.
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