53 SKIDOO

Messier object 53

Globular Cluster M53 (NGC 5024), class V, in Coma Berenices

If I can make it another four hours and thirty six minutes or so, I will celebrate my fifty third revolution around the sun.  To be entirely honest, I was actually born at 12:15 a.m..  It is all so entirely strange, because my close friends will tell you that I always foresaw my life ending in my fifty second year. All week I have been staring into the sky waiting for fuselage parts to come hurtling out of the ether.  I don't know why I always had the premonition but I honestly did and now barring some catastrophic event during the balance of my evening, I will have to wake up tomorrow morning staring at a chapter of life that I honestly never thought that I would face. Now what the hell do I do?

Anyhow, I have had the tight back and a bit of a hack and every ache must now be internally scrutinized as a portent of imminent demise but chances are that I am likely to pull through. And since I have a new lease on the next cycle of existence, I beg to ask you all to share a glass of wine or spirit with me and celebrate this marvelous life that we all share. I might even buy or we can perhaps go dutch.

So forgive me for my superstition and humor me with your friendship. We will face life's mysteries together and hopefully with some modicum of style and happiness.

Cheers.

Robert

(p.s. If I do attain this milestone, I plan on dining tomorrow night at Creola, 7:30 p.m.)


After 53 seasons, Giants win first Series for S.F.
Fifty-three is the 16th prime number. It is also an Eisenstein prime.
The sum of the first 53 primes is 5830, which is divisible by 53, a property shared by few other numbers.
53 written in hexadecimal is 35, that is, the same characters used in the decimal representation, but reversed. Three multiples of 53 share this property: 371 = 17316, 5141 = 141516, 99481 =1849916.
But 53 can not be expressed as the sum of any integer and its base 10 digits, making 53 a self number.
* The atomic number of iodine.
* Messier object M53, a magnitude 8.5 globular cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices
* The New General Catalogue object NGC 53, a magnitude 12.6 barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Tucana
* The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on August 26, 1295 BC and ended on February 21, 220. The duration of Saros series 53 was 1514.5 years, and it contained 85 solar eclipses.
* The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on June 5, 993 BC and ended on July 12, 287 . The duration of Saros series 53 was 1280.1 years, and it contained 72 lunar eclipses.
* The racing number of Herbie, a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of his own, first appearing in the 1969 film The Love Bug
* The code for international direct dial phone calls to Cuba
* Municipal Okrug 53, a municipal okrug of Nevsky District of Saint Petersburg, Russia
* "53 Days" is a northeastern USA rock band
* Part of the title of the 1912 movie North of Fifty Three, remade in 1917
* "53 Days" a novel by Georges Perec
* Ringo Starr’s book "Postcards From the Boys" (2003) contains 53 postcards from fellow Beatles
* Fictional 53rd Precinct in the Bronx was found in the TV comedy "Car 54, Where Are You?"
* Tony Baretta also worked out of the fictitious 53rd precinct
* "53rd & 3rd" a song by the Ramones
* "53 Miles West of Venus” by The B-52's
* The number of countries in Africa
* EK53 is an Estonian graffiti crew
* The number of the French department Mayenne
* Year identifier used on motor vehicles registered in the UK between 1 September 2003 and 28 February 2004
* The number of bytes in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode packet.
* UDP and TCP port number for the Domain Name System protocol  
*The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters of the Air Force Reserve, is one-of-a-kind: the only Department of Defense organization still flying into tropical storms and hurricanes--since 1944.
*Don Dysdale's Dodger jersey number

Group 53 symbols

KV53 - Egyptian tomb


Isaiah 53
 1 Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground. 


53. Chien / Development (Gradual Progress)THE IMAGE
On the mountain, a tree:
The image of DEVELOPMENT.
Thus the superior man abides in dignity and virtue,
In order to improve the mores.


The Japanese Kamasutra Position (53) Lift-up
The woman lies on her belly with both her arms and legs stretched. The man approaches her from behind on his knees and lifts her by the thighs while she supports her upper body with her hands on the floor.


Skanda Upanishad 53
Om ! May He protect us both together; may He nourish us both together;
May we work conjointly with great energy,
May our study be vigorous and effective;
May we not mutually dispute (or may we not hate any).
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
1-5. (Skanda says): Great god ! Owing to an iota of your compassion I am the lapseless being (not lapsing from the identity). I am a mass of knowledge ! I am also the Good – what more (can I need) ?
Owing to the waxing of the Internal organ, what is not spiritual appears as such; by its warning, this is nothing but pure knowledge or Hari. I am knowledge alone, unborn – what more ? All that is other (than) It is inert and perishes like a dream.
He who discerns the consciousness as distinct from the inert is the unswerving mass of knowledge. Only he is Shiva, Hari, luminary of luminaries, the supreme god, the Brahman – I am that Brahman surely.


Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam - Quatrain 53