Kooler Katie

I may have mentioned before how cool my little sister is. And now I'd like to announce that she's even cooler -- sorry, "kooler" -- because she just had her 28th birthday.

Like Penny, I firmly believe we improve with age, and even though I can't do some of the things I used to do (in many cases because I used to do them) I still consider myself more interesting to sit down and have a hot dog with (despite the vegetarianism) than I used to be, which is basically my litmus test for self-evaluation.

And now Katie's got all these other things to discuss over hot dogs, even if you only count things having to do with being age 28. But still I'm not sure she's feeling good about it. In fact, she possibly didn't want me announcing her age right here on this site, but then she's used to her jerk big brother doing stuff like that.

Anyway, I figured I ought to point out as many of these new coolnesses as I could, in celebration of Katie's Birthday. Here goes, Katie:

- 28 days is the approximate duration of the lunar cycle (and that "other" cycle, and theoretically if you unplug your nightlight and go to bed on time, your ovulation will start to align with the full moon).

- 28 years (your life so far) is how long it takes Saturn to revolve around the sun. Thus, as a Saturnian, you just turned 1.

- In Hebrew Numerology, 28 corresponds to the word "koakh," which means Power and Energy.

- There was that Sandra Bullock film a few years back, 28 Days, about drinking, and then 28 Days Later, about British zombies.

- It's how many dominoes you have, if your set is complete.

- It's how many teeth you have, ditto.

- In 1928, a hundred years and ten days ago, the world's largest hailstone fell in Nebraska - 5.5 inches across! Also, they started drinking Coke in Europe.

- In 2028, the world population will probably reach 8 billion, and we might get all our energy from clean sources like solar power, and we'll get a new President and have the Olympics in probably Holland, Canada or Milwaukee.

- Cut open an atom of nickel (Ni), and that's how many protons you'll find. Though an actual nickel from your pocket is mostly Copper, which has 29.

- There are 28 words on the Google homepage, which is probably the most popular page on the planet, and the one I used to find some of these facts.

- Because our Gregorian calendar follows a 28-year cycle, the calendar from the year you were born lines up exactly with this year's. The day you were born was a Wednesday too.

- The Australian golfer Adam Scott is also 28 today, but he's earned 23 million dollars in his career so far, so if you're feeling competitive, I'd book some lessons or something.

- And lastly, my favorite: 28 is a Perfect number, because you can add up all its divisors (1, 2, 4, 7 and 14) and get the number itself. The last time your age was a perfect number was at age 6 (divisible by 1, 2 and 3) and the next time it'll happen will be the day you turn 496. Expect soft cake.