February 11, 2005

Pomona's Prime Number

By SARA LIPKA

Many of us have our lucky numbers. Then there's Pomona College, where a veritable cult has developed around the uncanny incidence of the number 47, with believers -- some with tongue planted more firmly in cheek than others -- suggesting that the number holds a place of cosmic significance.

"Forty-seven is dogma ... a legend of mythical proportions," says a 20-year-old student handbook. Since the mid-1960s, when the college's fixation began, Pomona students and alumni and

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