(*If you even believe that there IS such a department.)
Pick a number between 1 and 100, or a number that's friends with such a number.
Multiply it by the number of pushpins you possessed on your last birthday.
Throw this number away (it's recyclable).
Now, enter the 5-digit PANTONE code for your favorite color.
Subtract from this the number of letters in the NAME this color would be given by a manufacturer of telephones, IF they made a phone in this color.
Pick up this telephone and call someone you went to high school with whom you last saw wearing a fair isle sweater and/or a houndstooth baseball cap.
Ask your friend to guess the number of skips in your great-uncle's favorite Rudy Vallee 78.
Divide this number by any non-zero non-number, and memorize the result.
Write an "infinity" sign on your kitchen wall in squirting mustard.
Turn your kitchen sideways.
Is your number 8?
Copyright Jonathan Caws-Elwitt.