Short Story 159*: How I Got Three Zip Codes/Kid Sister

David Duffy · 29 Apr 2015, 01:32 · from 2015-April.txt.gz

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From: David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2015 11:32:29 +1000
Subject: (urth) Short Story 159*: How I Got Three Zip Codes/Kid Sister
In-Reply-To: <CAF1072zrfsFWC3qmRW-5WP+-c8xDhzWLN7uFUBHoQw8mrKAfdQ at mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAF1072zrfsFWC3qmRW-5WP+-c8xDhzWLN7uFUBHoQw8mrKAfdQ at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <alpine.LMD.2.00.1504291116300.3586 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>

On Mon, 27 Apr 2015, Marc Aramini wrote:

> #HOW I GOT THREE ZIP CODES AND KID SISTER/INTRODUCTION TO PHOENIX
>
> "How I Got Three Zip Codes" first appeared in *The Mammoth Book of Comic
> Fantasy II* in 1999 and has not been collected.
>
> Wolfe says that his zip codes are 60011, 60011, and 60047 (two from
> "I tol' yer ma ya wouldn't be normal. How 'bout the cube root?"
>
> Wolfe responds, 6023 and 2/3rds, and the grandfather asks if people could
> write to him at that zip code.

Missing a zero: 60022.9976012393064119998

> "I don't see why not." The grandfather asks the average, and Wolfe says
> that it is the same number [the product of the three numbers and the
> product of the average three times is the same number, at least to 7
> significant figures].

ie 60023

RE: Sighting at Twin Mounds

I thought it might also allude to Lovecraft (and Bishop) _The Mound_:

"I had gone into Oklahoma to track down and correlate one of the many 
ghost tales which were current among the white settlers, but which had strong 
Indian corroboration...

"The tale, outwardly, was an extremely naive and simple one, and centred 
in a huge, lone mound or small hill that rose above the plain about a third 
of a mile west of the village?a mound which some thought a product of 
Nature, but which others believed to be a burial-place or ceremonial dais 
constructed by prehistoric tribes. This mound, the villagers said, was 
constantly haunted by, two Indian figures which appeared in alternation; 
an old man who paced back and forth along the top from dawn till dusk, 
regardless of the weather and with only brief intervals of disappearance, 
and a squaw who took his place at night with a blue-flamed torch that 
glimmered quite continuously till morning. When the moon was bright the 
squaw?s peculiar figure could be seen fairly plainly, and over half the 
villagers agreed that the apparition was headless...

"The blue light!?the blue light!...? muttered the object, 'always down 
there'"

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