(Sorry, catching up on reader e-mail.) A couple of readers wanted to know
if Sunday was a particularly inauspicious day to Chinese people, being
04-04-04. The word for “four” in Chinese is the same as the word for
“death,” only in a different tone. Four is therefore considered an unlucky
number.
I can’t say I noticed any particular apprehension on Rosie’s part, and
nobody else mentioned it. I do vividly remember 8/8/88, though. The number
8, being the double of a double doubled, and doubleness being always
auspicious, is a very lucky number. At that time, Rosie and I were living
in Manhattan, and Rosie was working for a jewelry store in Chinatown.
Approx. 10,000 new Chinatown businesses chose that day to open their stores.