Alex's Adventures in Numberland - Alex Bellos [30]
Miyamoto met his wife, a former national soroban champion, when they frequented the same abacus club as youngsters. Their daughter, Rikako, is a soroban prodigy. Pity her if she wasn’t. At age eight, she completed her top dan – a level that only one in 100,000 people ever achieve in their lifetimes. Rikako, who is now aged nine, was in class. She was wearing a pastel-blue top, and her fringe came down to her glasses. She looked very alert and pursed her lips as a sign of concentration.
Shiritori is a Japanese word game that starts with a person saying shiritori and each subsequent person must say a word that starts with the last syllable of the previous word. So, a possible second word would be ringo (apple), because it begins with ri. Miyamoto asked Rikako and the girl next to her to play shiritori with each other at the same time as playing a game of Flash Anzan in which 30 three-digit numbers were to be displayed in 20 seconds. The machine sounded its introductory pips and the girls’ dialogue went:
Ringo
Gorira (gorilla)
Rappa (trumpet)
Panda (panda bear)
Dachou (ostrich)
Ushi (cow)
Shika (deer)
Karasu (crow)
Suzume (sparrow)
Medaka (killifish)
Kame (turtle)
Medama yaki (fried egg)
At the end of the 20 seconds, Rikako said: 17,602. She had been able to add up the 30 numbers and play shiritori simultaneously.
CHAPTER TWO
Behold!
I do not consider my birth date an especially riveting conversational opener. That may be, however, because I have not spent enough time in the company of men like Jerome Carter. I had just sat down for lunch with him and his wife Pamela at their home in Scottsdale, Arizona, when it came out: 22 November.
‘Waaaooooooow!’ said Pamela, a 57-year-old former air stewardess, who was wearing a pretty pink top and a denim skirt.
Jerome looked at me. In a serious tone he confirmed her enthusiasm: ‘You have got a very good number there.’
Jerome, who is aged 53, does not look like your average mystic. He was dressed in an orange Hawaiian shirt and white shorts, his strong frame reflecting previous careers as a karate champion and international bodyguard. So what was so good about 22/11, I asked?
‘Well, 22 is a master number. So is 11. There are only four master numbers: 11, 22, 33 and 44.’
Jerome has a distinguished face, with strong smile lines and a shiny bald dome. He also has a wonderfully musical voice, part sports commentator, part rapping MC: ‘You were born on the twenty-second,’ he said. ‘It is no accident that our first president was born on the twenty-second. Two and two equals what? Four. We elect our presidents when? Every four years. We pay our taxes in the fourth month. Everything in the United States is four. Everything. Our first navy had 13 ships, 1 and 3 equals 4. We used to have 13 colonies, 1 and 3 equals 4. There were 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Four. Where were they standing at? 1300 Locust Street. Four!
‘Number four controls money. You were born under it. It’s a very powerful number. The number four is the square, so it involves law, structure, government, organization, journalism, construction.’
He was beginning to hit his stride: ‘That’s how I told O.J. he was going to walk. I looked at his lawyers. All of his lawyers were born under the number four. Johnny Cochran, born on the twenty-second, 2 and 2 equals 4. F. Lee Bailey, born on the thirteenth. 1 and 3 equals 4. Barry Scheck, born on the fourth. Robert Shapiro, born on the thirty-first, 3 and 1 equals 4. He had four lawyers born under the number four. The verdict came down when? Four p.m. OK? Hitler would have walked!
‘As Mike Tyson said when I did his numbers, when it’s the time with these numbers, even your mistakes turn out good.’
Jerome is a professional numerologist. He believes numbers express qualities, not just quantities. His gift, he said, is that he can use this understanding to gather insights about people’s personalities and even predict the future. Actors, musicians,