What's in a Number or Rah-Rah Chile

The Chilean miners have been freed from a prison 2000 feet into the rocky Earth. All 33, one at a time, in turn, were pulled up through a shaft, which could double as a scary Halloween night experience. The Phoenix,


as the rescue capsule has been named, is a lifesaver. Chile deserves its due and this slender shaft of a country has shown the world how much it treasures human life. In some areas of the world, 33 lives don't mean that much. Boom-kapow.

33 is a cool number. Not that it has any hoo-ha in this case, but it was the age at which Jesus died. It's also the atomic number of the element arsenic and equally unrelated is the fact that several famous American basketball players carried "33" on their backs. These hoopsters include Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing,


Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Scottie Pippen. All of their respective teams have retired "33" on their behalves. "33's" are hanging from the rafters of sports arenas in cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

5, too, is a cool number. Joe DiMaggio wore it and so did George Brett and Jeff Bagwell. They all played American baseball. And it is the atomic number of boron, which happens to be an uninspiring element. BORE-AHN


So far 5 of the 33 newly extricated miners have gotten caught up in, well, indelicate situations. Wearing Oakley sunglasses was not enough of a disguise. These denizens of the deep had MORE THAN ONE significant other waiting for them as they set foot in the sunlight. Mistresses and wives and even second wives along with their collections of various DNA mixed offspring were eager to see their top sided husbands, lovers and fathers. Since there are money and benefits at stake, it is no surprise that everyone and anyone with any skin in the game wants a piece of this action. Over the next days and weeks Chilean justice will be tested. Indeed.

To exemplify, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7978509/Mistresses-and-wives-clash-over-trapped-Chilean-miners.html, Yonni Barrios Rojas' wife, "Marta Salinas, 56, discovered he had a mistress when she came across another woman holding a vigil for him. The other woman, Susana Valenzuela, said they met on a training course five years ago and he was planning to leave his wife for her."

"He is my husband. He loves me and I am his devoted wife," insisted Mrs Salinas. "This other woman has no legitimacy."

Hmmm. Where is Solomon when you need him?

Is there a lesson to be learned? Like, always wear clean underwear...in case an accident occurs and a visit to the emergency room is required.


Well, maybe, like always make sure wives and mistresses and kids are properly filed and organized? In case you get indisposed for a couple of months. Of course this all seems preposterous. How could anyone anticipate such a freakish turn of events? After all, how many people get trapped in a mine for 69 days? 69 is another number of significance. It is the atomic number of thulium. Uh? It also the number which, er, which, er... And so it goes.

Congratulations, CHILE!!