#4, #Chinese #iPhones and Elevators!

I noticed that the elevator did not have a #13 while I was in Mexico! When I visit the Far East it startles me because there it is big is life...a floor with the #13 button. However the Chinese have their superstitions too. They don't have all the buttons either. How does that work just exactly?

I had always thought that #13 superstition had something to do with Harry Houdini. I looked it up and I was wrong. However, numbers do play a part in most cultures on this earth I think. But to leave out a whole floor on every building's elevator just seems very, very strange don't you think?

Then I began to think about the iPhone. Since the Chinese think that the #4 sounds the same as the word for death, they don't have a #4 elevator button. I wondered if they allowed a #4 on all those new cell phones everyone is using.  Imagine...no #4 or GHI if you are texting the old fashioned way.

I don't know why it just hit me but #### are very strange, exotic and wonderful things when you think about them.

Have a wonderful day!

b+

This is an elevator panel made in China. Notice the differences.

Any number that ends in #4 (i.e. #24, #34, #44) is omitted. 

Both #13 and #14 are missing! I guess they don't use #1 and #2 either.

Obviously they are not taking any chances.

Note: I do know about the Last Supper, the stages of the moon and a lot of other stuff! Honestly I did look it up! Special thank to Janet and her article A Brief History of the Telephone on Midlife Boulevard for the inspiration!

Interesting huh?