By Lance Smith

I was planning on doing a seasonal sports wrap-up, but I’ve decided that might be a little tricky, as the season has not actually wrapped up yet. Volleyball and soccer just keep winning! Of course, by the time this is printed, it might all be over, but what can I do? There’s always pro sports. On the other hand, hockey has only just started, the Cardinals just won the World Series, and the NBA is still in a lockout, although that might change soon. College hoops doesn’t start for a couple more days, and football is… football. So sports will have to wait.

Hey, guess what Friday is. It’s 11-11-11. You probably knew that. It’s also our Homecoming, and Skyrim comes out. But I had to wonder if there’s any significance behind it. First of all, there’s a movie coming out called 11-11-11. Looks pretty creepy to me. Anyway, in the movie, characters sometimes suffer from 11:11 syndrome: A semi-fictitious tendency people have to look at the clock more at 11:11 AM or PM than at almost all other times. When I first researched this, naturally I was inclined to check the clock. Yeah, it was 11:11 PM. No joke.

In the ancient to medieval days, back when there was tons of superstition, “prophets” placed values on numbers. While most doubt the credibility of these, the number 11 had a surprisingly popular trend – of being ominous. That’s right. A thousand years ago, 11 was an absolutely horrible number. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. In roughly four days from the moment that I’m writing these words, the time will be 11:11 PM with 11 seconds on 11-11-11. I wonder if this is like 12-21-12 for the Mayans but instead for the Romans or wherever these people came from.

Eleven is the number of soccer players per team on a field. It’s also the atomic number for sodium. Many people resent the number 11 as at that point, counting on one’s fingers becomes extremely difficult. And if you ask the wrong person, it’s the sum of 1 and 1.

Those are my scattered, mediocrely-researched thoughts about 11:11 at 11-11-11. Basketball has just started, so with that and the end of fall sports, expect the next Sports N’ Stuff to actually have SA sports. That’s that.