Thirty-three years ago this day, Cecil Adams was loosed upon a grateful world by his original editor, one Mike Lenehan, in a column dated February 2, 1973 – a landmark event fully as historic as the opening of Pandora’s box of Greek mythology. Over the years, columns about the number 33 have provided numerous insights into Cecil keen intellect, including, but not limited to: Why is there a “33” on Rolling Rock beer labels?, Why are record speeds 33, 45, and 78 RPM? (“phonographs” were a primitive method for recording audio on platters at various rotational velocities), 33, gimme a cherry-flavored Coke, and 33 degrees of Freemasonary.
In Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world?, a correspondent reminded Cecil, and us, about the importance of the “17/23 correlation”. And Cecil’s 33rd anniversary reminds us of the equal significance of the digit “3”. The mystical powers of this number are perhaps most fully explored in the classic “Three Little Trippertrots on Their Travels”, [Howard Garis, Graham & Matlack, NY, 1912] which cataloged “the wonderful things they [the three Trippertrots] saw and the wonderful things they [the three Trippertrots] did”. And Cecil’s trinity of editors – the incomparable Lenehan, the fabulous Dave Kehr, and most chonologically that personable Zotti character – have embarked, arm-in-arm with Unca Cece, on intellectual adventures fully as engrossing as those experienced by Tommy, Johnny and Mary Trippertrot. (Compare “Yes, perhaps he is lost, and looking for the stable where his horse is,” suggested Johnny, from “Adventure Number Eight: The Trippertrots and the Basket of Clothes”, with I thought everybody knew this, but then again you’re from Baltimore, the city from another dimension. from Cecil’s Why do men’s and women’s shirts button on different sides?)
Cecil’s near-obsessive fascination with the digit 3 means it is not too early to be thinking about – mark this date on your calender, we’re all invited – February 2, 2306, when we will celebrate his 333rd anniversary. In fact, now might be the time to sew up the rights to use the 1954 classic by The Drifters – “Three Thirty-Three” – as the theme song for these festivities.