08 08 08...Three times Good Fortune and Many Weddings

When listening to the very lucky Jennifer 8 Lee (NY Times writer and author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles) expand on the Brian Lehrer show on the virtues of number 8 in Chinese culture, I could not help but think that the Beijing Olympic games organizers left nothing to chance by selecting 08 08 08 as the opening day for the event.

Leslie Fulbright (Sf Chronicle) reports Thousands to wed on 8/8/08 - 'luckiest day' and informs us that "the number eight is considered lucky by numerologists and is especially auspicious in some Asian cultures. In Chinese, a day is considered lucky if it sounds like a word that is positive. The words for the number eight are ba in Mandarin and paat in Cantonese, which sound similar to the words for prosperity, fa in Mandarin and faat in Cantonese"

Strangely enough this is the day chosen by the good people at South by Southwest Interactive to open the Panel Picker for the 2009 event.

It allows you to vote for your favorite topics such as yours truly 'From Consumed to Thrifty: Strategies for the Good Life in a Wobbly Economy'...more details on that tomorrow.