42.

Forty-two was Jackie Robinson's number. Yesterday, April 15, 2009, every player in Major League Baseball wore that number on his uniform. The occasion was to celebrate the day Robinson became the first African-American (they were not called that back then) player on the MLB rosters. Thank Branch Rickey for that.

Shortly thereafter, Larry Doby put on his Cleveland Indians uniform to become number two.

Forty-two is a kind of 'magic' number. I am a big fan of the late author, Douglas Adams (no relation.) He wrote the HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY books and many others. He was a Mensch of the highest order.

In one of the books, the protagonist seeks the answer to the question of why the universe exists and ends up on a lonely planet somewhere on the edge of a far-off galaxy. The planet is inhabited by a single old man and his farm animals. That old man is probably God himself, in retirement.

The old man has a really advanced computer, so they all input the question, "What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?" The computer buzzes and whirls and finally prints out the answer to why does life exist and what's it all about....

"42."

That's it! Just the number 42!

So every real Douglas Adams HITCHHIKER nut like me owns a baseball cap with the number on the front.

42.

The moral of that story is, if you ask a stupid question - you get a stupid answer every time. So laugh about it and go on living.