Omaha World Herald, NE
07-08-07
It was 7-7-07's time to shine
BY RICK RUGGLES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
From a birthday party at 7:07 a.m. to a wedding reception toast at 7:07 p.m.,
people paid respect Saturday to the number 7.
Bellevue residents Michele Smith and B.J. Gabriel, who have been engaged for
two years, waited for Saturday to marry. The number 7 is a big deal to the bride.
"Seven's my lucky number," Smith said. "There's 7s in everything I do."
Nebraska Lottery tickets awaited 277 wedding guests, and Smith's parents,
Margie and Hines Smith, prepared a toast for 7:07 p.m. at the reception. Now
that Michele has taken Gabriel as her name, there are seven letters in both her
first and last.
Twelve hours before that toast, Délice European Bakery & Café owner Pat
McDermott opened his shop 23 minutes early at Therese Safranek's request.
Safranek thought it would be terrific to begin her daughter's 18th birthday at
Délice at 7:07 a.m.
The birthday girl, Claire Brosnihan, walked into Délice with her parents,
grandmother and little brother. Actually, it was more like 7:10 a.m., but nobody
complained.
"I just really like the desserts here, and my mom wanted to do something on 7-707 at 7:07," Claire said. "I kind of wanted to sleep in, but then I remembered how
good their desserts are."
Experts in numbers, cultures and superstition cannot pinpoint why people so
value the number 7.
Iowa State University's Mack Shelley, a professor of statistics and political
science, said ancient Greeks liked odd numbers better than even ones, and saw
prime numbers as pure and wholesome. Seven is such a number. It can be
divided evenly only by itself and one.
Phil Stevens, a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at
Buffalo, said many cultures were impressed by the 28-day cycles of the moon.
The most common way of dividing those cycles is into four weeks of seven days
each, he said, and maybe that is one reason 7 is viewed as powerful.
Stevens, who studies supernatural beliefs and other subjects, said the number 7
appears frequently in mythology, world literature and the Bible.
Iowa State's Shelley does not think 7 has any power of its own. "I think most
statistical types would say there is no such thing as luck, per se," he said.
Some terrific athletes have worn 7 on their jerseys, Mickey Mantle and John
Elway among them. Boeing denies in an online article that luck has anything to
do with the fact that the names of its commercial aircraft rely heavily on 7 - 707,
727, 747 and others. Boeing appropriately will unveil its new airliner, the 787,
today - 7/8/07.
Just for fun, Fontenelle Park Golf Course pro Joe Wiegand launched a regular
Saturday morning threesome at 7:07 a.m. John Adams, who was the first in his
group to drive hole No. 1, boomed the ball off the tee and, bang, high into a tree.
"It is a lucky day!" said Adams, of Papillion. "It hit the tree but dropped down into
the fairway, baby!" The luck ended there. He took a 7 on the par 4.
Perhaps the first 7-7-07 baby in the region was La Vista's Hannah Rogers, who
was born at 12:27 a.m. at Bergan Mercy Medical Center. She weighed 3 ounces
shy of 7 pounds. Although the date of birth was purely coincidental, father
Richard Rogers said, he believed 7 is lucky.
Hannah's mother, Nicole Rogers, felt lucky. "Lucky that she's finally here," the
exhausted mother said. Labor had been induced Thursday night.
At Hot Shops Art Center in north downtown, artists opened a show at 7 p.m.
featuring 7-by-7-inch pieces created around such themes as the seven deadly
sins and seven heavenly virtues. Ninety-one artists from 14 states, Ireland and
Australia contributed pieces. The show will remain on display through late July.
Harrah's Casino in Council Bluffs was on pace by late afternoon to entertain
twice as many customers as it hosts on a typical Saturday, spokeswoman Missy
Hardersen said. She said it was because Saturday was "the luckiest day of the
year" and because until 8 p.m., the casino was doling out $777 every half hour
after random drawings of names.
Larry Peterson of Sioux City, Iowa, said 7 is one of his lucky numbers, behind 5
and 11. But 7-7-07 let him down in the casino Saturday afternoon.
"It ain't lucky today for me," Peterson said.