33 / by Rebecca Tillett

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday. I worked too much. I drank too much. I smoked too much. But oh, the friends, the love, the fun, the sweetness of life I'll never tire of savoring. What a wonderful day, and so much to be grateful for. 33, I have so much planned for you.

  • A normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually
  • 33 is, according to the Newton scale, the temperature at which water boils
  • 33 was Jesus's age when he was crucified in 33 A.D.
  • According to Al-Ghazali the dwellers of Heaven will exist eternally in a state of being age 33
  • In reference to gramophone records, 33 refers to a type of record by its revolution speed of 33⅓ revolutions per minute. 33s are also known as long playing records, or LPs
  • Thirty-three is song by The Smashing Pumpkins on their album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (released on my birthday 20 years ago 10/23/95)
  • 33 is the title of the first episode of the 2004 Battlestar Galactica television series in which the Cylons came every 33 minutes
  • The number 33 was discovered to lead to the essential meaning of life (the Bible) in Dan Brown's 2009 novel "The Lost Symbol".