March 30, 2007

• A Text for the Times:

  Rings

  "Philosophers ponder the idea of identity: what it is to give something
  a name on Monday and have it respond to that name on Friday...."

  -- Bernard Holland in
     The New York Times
     Monday, May 20, 1996

  The headline for Edward Rothstein's "Connections" column in The New York Times of Monday, March 26, 2007, was
  "Texts That Run Rings Around Everyday Linear Logic."

  Here is such a text.

  The New York Lottery, Friday, March 30, 2007: Mid-day 002 Evening 085

  
  Continuing yesterday's lottery meditation, let us examine today's New
  York results in the light of Rothstein's essay.  The
  literary "ring" structure he describes is not immediately apparent in
  Friday's numbers, although the mid-day number, 002-- which in the I Ching signifies yin, the feminine, receptive principle-- might be interpreted as referring to a ring of sorts.

  

  Illustration from
  an entry of
  March 2, 2004

  For the evening number, 085, see the list of page
  numbers in last year's Log24 entry (cited here last night) for today's date, March 30.  Page 85, in the
  source cited here a year ago, begins...

  "A random selection from Hopkins's journal shows how the sun acts as a focus...."

  See also last night's picture:

  

   

  Last night's reference to last
  year's entry on this date provides,
  like the last and first pages of
  Finnegans Wake, an example
  of literary "ring" structure.

  Today's New York evening number,
  85, reinforces this "ring" reference.

  For related material, see
  an entry for Reba McEntire's
  birthday four years ago.

  • 9:48 pm
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