I need 25 more subscribers

March 28, 2014 • 2:40 am

My lucky number is 5, and my special lucky number is five-squared, or 25 (don’t harass me about this superstition!). I bet many of you have lucky numbers.

And reader gravelinspector informed me that as of this a.m., I am only 25 readers away from 25,000 subscribers:

Screen shot 2014-03-28 at 5.33.38 AM

Now they clearly screwed up by calling it a “blog,” but I have no say in that.  Anyway, if you want to incur the blessings of Ceiling Cat, plz sign up to make it 25K, though I can’t offer a prize for the 25,000th subscriber (I’m still working on sending out books to the winners of the “Cat Confessions Contest”).

Need I add how grateful (and surprised) I am that so many people read this website? Several people at the meeting yesterday came up to me out of the blue to tell me that they follow it. (More on the meeting later today.)

I wonder how many “non-amazing” followers I have. . .

51 thoughts on “I need 25 more subscribers”

  1. Up to 24,980 as of this writing.
    Perhaps you should offer a prize to the 25,000th follower.

    I think I’m not officially counted, as I get your RSS feed.

  2. Just registered and hopefully about to claim the prize of an all expenses paid trip to Chicago for the 25 thousandth subscriber.

    Professor Coyne,

    I’ve been enjoying your site for some time now have finally ‘signed up’. I don’t have a science background but have a keen interest in science from a lay perspective, inspired by my years working at one of the UK’s leading universities in an admin role. I doubt I’ll post much but I’ll certainly continue to be an avid reader.

    All the best.

    Ian Hewitson

    1. …what if they desert you for WEIT? 🙁

      By the way, I feel really amazing today…

  4. I have a similar system: 3 is my favourite prime-number, and 3^2 (27) is my favourite composite-number.

      2. Isn’t 999 the emergency number for Brits?
        (Which seemed odd to me back in the days of dial telephones because dialing 9s take the longest amount of time.)

        1. Yes, but now we can make a 999 call by dialling 112.

          Here is the reason, from a BBC article:

          In order to find the new emergency number in the dark or thick smoke it was suggested an end number was used so it could be found easily by touch. 111 was rejected because it could be triggered by faulty equipment or lines rubbing together. 222 would have connected to the Abbey local telephone exchange as numbers in the early telephone network represented the first three letters (ABBey = 222). 1 was not used due to the accidental triggering). 000 could not be used as the first 0 would have dialled the operator. 999 was deemed the sensible choice.

          /@

      1. BEAN SCRIPT KITTEH HAS ITZ ADVANTAGEZ, U KNOE. Y STOP AT 25,000? Y NOT 150,000,000? I FINKZ WIF FEW WELL-PLACD TROJANZ, 425 MILLION GMAIL AN 800 MILLION YAHOOS OUT THAR… SUM IMPROOVEMENTS IN MAH HOOMAN SIMULASHUN ROUTINEZ, AN WELL GIV THEES WERDPRES SERVERS SUM SERIOUS TRAFFIC! EVEN BABY KITTEH CUD DO IT…
        BETTR THUMBS WUD BE NICE RITE BOUT NAO, BUT EVOLUSHUN DOESNT WERK DAT WAI.

        This message has been sent from my Blackberry!

  9. I read this website everyday but I have not subscribed to it. I didn’t feel the need to do it.

    1. I must admit I’d never even noticed that you could subscribe. My experience with being distracted by email lists in the 90s means that I try to keep website stuff entirely separate from email.

  10. Isn’t it dangerous to assume all luck is good? I have plenty of luck and it’s mostly bad; I would want more of it.

    1. I was born under a bad sign. If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.

    2. Come on chaps – we all know luck is not a thing! It is an idea with no more meaning than god.

    3. I would like to know how many non-amazing people are following. Why don’t they report those numbers?

  13. Signed up at 11 to go 🙂 be honest, how many are waiting for it to clock 24,999 before they sign…?

  14. I like numbers that are even, especially in 4’s. I don’t feel good with uneven numbers.

    2. I like uneven numbers meself. Grew on me as I’m from a family of avid gardeners, and we tend to plant stuff (except veggies — how they look in a group doesn’t matter) in odd numbers. 🙂

  16. Jerry:

    Although I tend to think of it as a favorite number, not a lucky number, mine is also 25, and for the most prosaic of reasons–I was born on the 25th of the month!

  17. Darn it, Dean, I thought *I* was the 25,000th! (I signed up when it said “Join 24,999 other followers” but it took me about a minute to verify my email address.) Diana and gbjames, I’m sorry if I’m the one who bumped the number up to 25,001. I too like even numbers. 🙁

    Anyway, been reading via RSS for years now but I’m happy to make it official.

  19. Sorry, man, can’t have it both ways. If you ain’t a blogger, I ain’t a follower.

  22. I subscribed, but I usually see new posts on something called ‘twitter’. It’s quite useful you know.

  23. If it helps, after I followed, it was at 25,026 — so I unfollowed and it worked. I have a screen capture of it at 25,025 followers.

  24. I have this sneaking suspicion Deepak and Klinghoffer are amongst the ‘amazing’.

  25. Serial lurker here. Thought I’d make it official and join. Read every day & love it. Will I be lucky and have number 25 by my name.

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