Six Seven

DM 1st November 2025

The kids all think they’re cool with their sing-song ‘six seven’ – glad most of all, for the way it annoys adults. They seem quite unconcerned that the little phrase is beyond definition. Just glad that it ticks the boxes of an inside-joke and gives them some sense of power. Derived from a rapper’s song about the height of a basketballer, in the old metric system of feet and inches, it has become a rather whimsical expression of ‘whatever’.

Kids in every generation have their six-seven’s. In mine, it was 42, the answer to the ultimate question of the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Except unlike six-seven, it came with the other side of the equation, that the question, said its author, Douglas Adams, is six times nine, meaning that life is meaningless. It doesn’t add up. It was an existential cry again the senseless mess of the world.

There was once a lady at a well who had come to draw water. She strikes me as a bit of a six-seven type of girl and a woman whose quick-lip would have probably enjoyed the 6 x 9 = 42 humour. After a number of failed marriages – she was on her ‘sixth’ – she was tired of men and weary of life. But there He was. Sitting at the well. With no dark humour nor crude put-downs nor suggestive remarks. Just love. Just truth. Just life. No wonder she traded her worn-out jibes for his life-giving hand.

Recent Posts

Super saints

Super saints DM 7th August 2026 David Epstein in his popular book, The Sports Gene, reports the discovery of a gene located on chromosome two,

Read More »

Terrific torque

Terrific torque DM 31st July 2026 Allen-keys are sometimes referred to as hex-wrenches, in light of the six edges that grip a hexagonal recess. They’re

Read More »

Door knocking

Door knocking DM 24th July 2026 Does anyone knock anymore? Our electronic bell-ringer is currently broken, and I’ve removed the button-press from beside the front

Read More »

Correcting bias 

Correcting bias DM 17th July 2026 I think my wife needs a wheel alignment. When we go for a walk around the block, I’ve found that I have to walk

Read More »

Yeah, Nah

Yeah, Nah DM 10th July 2026 ‘Yeah, Nah’ has just been promoted to OED status, which ought to impress most Aussies and Kiwis who are

Read More »

The Other Elam

The Other Elam DM 3rd July 2026 If David Beckham was in my school year, I would be known as ‘the other David’. Likewise if

Read More »

Red cards

Red cards DM 26th June 2026 “That was a foul! Surely ref! Come on! Are you blind?! Send him off! Red card! At least a

Read More »

An Iliad

An Iliad DM 19th June 2026 “Rage! Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles / that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the

Read More »