Last weekend, I couldn’t sleep and was up channel surfing when suddenly, I perfectly came across the beginning of a movie I had never seen – but was dying to – The Number 23. Besides being a really good movie in itself – I realized – after seeing it – that there might be some truth to this “Number 23” thing. Frankly, the thought of it creeped me out – but after really trying to wrap my head around it – I freaked out.

Starting to think how certain events, numbers, dates and circumstances in my personal life could somehow add up to the number 23 – which no one can not do after seeing the movie – I came to a really creepy conclusion…

…it’s true.

I started to add up everything I could think of – my birthday, the first day I got published, the day I got married – and I came to a really creepy conclusion…

…the number 23.

Let me demonstrate:

• I had my first article published on October 13, 1994
o 10 + 13 = 23
o 1+ 9 + 9 + 4 = 23

• I was born on January 24th
o 24 - 1 = 23

• After working for The Brooklyn Eagle, I got a job with Mayor Giuliani after I wrote a column about his re-election. The column was written on November 6, 1997. The number of the column…23

• I moved in to my new apartment here in New Jersey in December – the 23rd of December…23

• My sister’s house number is 1958
o 1 + 9 + 5 + 8 = 23

• I received my one and only letter from a President of the United States – Bill Clinton – in April of 1996…April 23, 1996

• My last name begins with the letter “W” – which in the alphabet…is 23 – and “W” is the 23rd letter of the Latin alphabet. It has two points down and three points up. White supremacists use 23 to represent “W” as a mark of racial superiority. (For the record, I am NOT a racist.)

• When I was Director of Marketing for Fillmore Real Estate, they had 22 offices – but if you add the headquarters building that I worked at…you get 23

• The woman who is my liaison at my condo association’s extension is 212
o 21 + 2 = 23

• I got married in 1995, I was born in 1972 – how old was I when I got married?
o 23

Amazing, isn’t it? But if you still think I’m nuts – check out these real facts I found about the number 23:

• The terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001 have been held up as one of the most frightening examples of the disturbing power of 23
o 9 + 11 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 23

• Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the start of human life. The nuclei of cells in human bodies have 46 chromosomes made out of 23 pairs. Egg and sperm cells in humans have 23 chromosomes which fuse and divide to create an embryo.

• The Titanic (which I am obsessed with) sank on April 15, 1912
o 4 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 9 + 1 + 2 = 23

• William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. He died 52 years later on his birthday…April 23, 1616

• Kurt Cobain, “The God Of Grunge,” was born in 1967 and died in 1994
o 1 + 9 + 6 + 7 = 23
o 1 + 9 + 9 + 4 = 23

• The Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15am
o 8 + 15 = 23

• Charles Darwin’s, “Origin of Species” was published in 1859
o 1 + 8 + 5 + 9 = 23

• In the disaster movie, Airport…the bomber had seat 23.

• The number of crosses on Calvary at the end of the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian…is 23.

• In Die Hard With A Vengeance…a train derails in subway station 23.

• The lead characters in the Coen brothers’ film, The Big Lebowski, always used Lane 23 at the bowling alley.

• In the television series Lost, one of the combination of six numbers that haunt the characters and they have to input to a computer to avoid an unknown fate…is 23.

• The first Morse code transmission, “What hath God wrought?” – was from a Bible passage…Numbers 23:23

Call me crazy, but I think there is really some validity to this. I have tried to blow it off, but I cannot. No matter how hard I try – I can’t escape the fact that the number 23 has some merit to it – be it bad or good – but it somehow seems to keep popping up in almost everything I calculate.

If you have seen the movie, then you have probably already done what I did. If you have not – then get started. If you have not seen the movie – then watch it with a pen and paper – and get ready to see that the number 23 is a part of your life as much as it is to Jim Carrey’s character – and to mine.

By the way – two divided by three – equals 666.

Still think I’m crazy?

How many bullet points are in this column?

And how many letters are in the title of this column?

Are you creeped out yet?