Seven Days to Sunday

I had no idea of the influence of the number seven outside of its reputation for being lucky when one is at the Craps’ table. I’ve been enlightened and astounded by the magical attributes of number seven by David Eastis...who has published his book “ 7: The Magical, Amazing and Popular Number Seven.” ( http://theSevenBook.com ) Recently I heard him pour forth with abundant excitement about his book, as well as the uncanny events and facts that are associated with all things seven.

The book has even more to offer for the septaphile – 307 pages of seven, in fact. Some obvious associations come with seven days in the week, colors in the rainbow, seven Wonders of the world and the number of notes in the musical scale. But, due to David’s exhaustive research, there’s and encyclopedia of knowledge to be discovered in his book of Seven. Like – Oprah Winfrey’s last name contains 7 letters, she donated $7 million to help 100 African American men go to college and there were 7 million subscribers when her channel debuted, among many other whimsies. (I suspect it was not a bad idea to make Oprah the first celebrity to grace the pages of his book. (Me thinks David is always thinking!) Opps – there’s Oprah again! Four quotes are attributed to her at the beginning of the section on “Quotes and phrases with 7 words.” She is trumped only by Mother Theresa, who appears first.

Sports fans will be thrilled with the associative trivia presented in the book, but I really liked the things I never noticed such as the Live Earth concerts took place on 7 continents on 7-7-07; seven is the number of cats allowed in California households, and WYSIWYG, as well as what it stands for – ‘what you see is what you get’ are sevens. Holy Cow (7 letters there too), can this all be an accident?

David has obviously had a great deal of fun with this book and it shows with the lightheartedness and enormous variety of information he’s included. Like me, he faces the task that writers don’t count on and usually don’t like – marketing and making something of the book. Getting it read. However, he’s already had a mention on “Metroactive,” a Silicon Valley weekly newspaper. (Reviews: http://www.the7book.com/reviews7.html )

One of the touching elements about his book is his tributes to the Kennedy family who was apparently also very fond on the number seven. Just a few examples – JFK was born in 1917 (hard to believe, isn’t it?), JFK’s nephew is Anthony Kennedy Shriver (each name has 7 letters) and has become highly respected as the founder of Best Buddies (7 letters there) – an international organization that creates friendships and opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. http://www.bestbuddies.org/ And further more Sargent Shriver – Anthony’s father - had first and last names spelled with 7 letters.

There’s something so euphoric about handing out the first copies of your newly published book and David was glowing as he passed me a copy over the breakfast table. He’s such an upbeat guy that he is unfazed by the fact that a fairly famous writer with a top publishing house is coming out with another book on the same number on December 7th (of course). He’s welcoming it as an addition to illuminating the world about the magic of his number and Candy Chand, an experienced, published author agrees – it will heighten the interest of septaphiles who are never satisfied with just one book. Most touching is David’s dedication of the book to his Italian born wife Sabrina – is it just coincidence that there are 7 letters in her name?

Darby Patterson, author, Meow.org, The Cat-Napping Caper http://darbysbooks.blogspot.com/