Number 73

Many, many years ago, Saturday morning TV used to be really good for us kids. I couldn’t tell you how it is nowadays, but I suppose the kids of today will say it is great too. But it can not be as great as it was in my day.

Number 73 was a Saturday morning TV show where all of the viewers went round to Number 73. The house with the always open front door (which was bright red and had a huge 73 across the centre) was a particular favourite of mine. Celebrities used to pop in for a chat with Ethel, the owner, and other people who lived there, or were connected in some way with the people there. Even the next door neighbours used to call around and end up chatting with the celebrities, if Ethel was busy. And just before lunchtime, Ethel would gather her guests into teams, and play the daring, dazzling, death-defyingly dull, devastatingly dangerous, delectable, delicatestible, divinely decadent sandwich quiz (had to visit Wikipedia for that line – I couldn’t remember all of the words!). In this quiz, which was a first-to-the-buzzer general knowledge quiz, the team who got the answer correct made the next sandwich, and the winning team had the most sandwiches made. I never saw anyone eat the sandwiches afterwards though, which is hardly surprising because anything went on them.

In fact, anything could happen at Number 73. I remember it as being random entertainment, but jolly good fun!

In LXXIII, the year 73, the Roman governor Lucius Flavius Silva laid siege to Masada, which was the last Jewish Outpost from the first Jewish Roman War. I didn’t know about that when I visited Masada, which was also several years after watching Number 73 on TV. In fact, I have only just found out about that now… whilst looking for random information on the number 73 I spotted a photo of Masada and thought ‘That looks familiar’. Apparently, the siege took place on April 16th.

Facts like that come in handy – you may get asked such a question when you are participating in your own sandwich quiz!

There is also a number 73 bus route in London, but I have no idea where it goes to. Unfortunately, this will also be a question, and quite possibly in the same sandwich quiz. Oh, and you may get asked what element has the atomic number 73. The answer is Tantalum.

Facts and figures. New information (well, it is new if you didn’t know it, like me) and a random post for a Sunday. And why not? I think that I may start writing one random post each week… although looking at some of the other things I write about it may be difficult to tell the difference…