Three of our household’s last four water bills ran to $47.47. I called the water department out of curiosity to see if we were receiving estimated bills. Nope. “You must be doing the same things every month,” I was told. Well, sort of. But still.
The number is remarkable for two reasons. The year 1947 is our household’s avowed favorite year in movies. And 47 is our family’s Burger King number — the order number we were given on our first visit to downstate Illinois’s one-of-a-kind Burger King. This Burger King — The Burger King — has no relation to the chain. The conflict of names became the stuff of a celebrated court case.
The numbers for Burger King orders were and are given at random. A 47 might be followed by, say, a 3. My guess is that the randomness serves to keep people from gathering at the counter to await their food. (Hey, we’re next.) Our 47 was sung out in a one-note nasal whine that went something like this: “Forrrr-dee-sehhhh-vinn,” give or take a letter or two.
Friday, June 21, 2024
$47.47
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comments: 6
I think that Gene Hoots’s brilliance made an order system that worked for people who put in large orders and people who put in small orders to get their food as quickly as possible. If I am making an order for eight people, it’s going to take a longer time to make then an order for one. So the person who ordered the one person ordered would have their food ready before the eight person order, naturally. Having that kind of sequence would start a series of random order numbers. Once an order has been filled the ticket with the number goes to the bottom of the pile, and is used at some time in the immediate future.
Ooh — another example of his smarts. So if a small order, say 47, is ready before large order, say 3, the person with the large order won't need to complain or worry about having missed their number.
Wikipedia tells me that Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, once noted that 42, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, was “a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also by six and seven. In fact it’s the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents.” 47 on the other hand, being 5 more than 42, and a prime to boot, seems a bit less take-home-to-mom-friendly, what with film noir, and an affinity for water issues and tasty burgers, he might have co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Chinatown :-)
Jim, you have added immense value to 47!
Your water bills are very low! JanF
I wondered how they might look to readers. We’re getting a rate hike, so the days of $47.47 may have passed.
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