Running Numbers

A scholarly look at the digits that matter.

by Nick Norlen

The Running Numbers Holiday Gift Guide for all the sports fans, theater geeks, art snobs, active types and do-gooders on your list. Finally you won't have to rely on your own terrible ideas.

2 Number of times La Salle University has canceled its football program — once in 1941 and, now, again, on Nov. 19 — making season tickets out of the question. But surely basketball fans would be pleased to receive tickets to La Salle's matchups against St. Joe's and Penn at the Palestra. Or St. Joe's games against Drexel, Penn, Villanova and Temple at the Palestra. Basically go for any game at the Palestra, which makes games enjoyable even when your school loses.

9:15 Length of David Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries," an NPR commentary — available in their online archives at npr.org — that recounts his days as a Christmas elf at Macy's in New York. It's the piece that launched his career before it was made into a short play, which will be produced by Flashpoint Theatre Co. Dec. 6 through 16 at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St. Tickets are $15 and are available at flashpointtheatre.org. While you're there, don't forget to sponsor Flashpoint's fourth season, or donate an item from their "wish list" — for furnishing their new administrative office — at flashpointtheatre.org/wish_list.html. Nothing says happy holidays like some gift-wrapped manila folders. At least that's what my grandma has always thought.

16 Number of local artists that will be selling their glass, jewelry, paintings, prints and artwork at the annual Positive Space holiday craft sale Dec. 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Standard Tap, Second and Poplar streets. I hope I can safely assume this will be a dreamcatcher-free craft fair. I hear there's dreamcatchers and I'll shut it down!

44 Number of solar eclipses observed by Dr. Jay Pasachoff, an author and eclipse expert who will appear at the Dec. 6 Explorer Dinner of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, an event exclusively for the club's Magellan Circle members. Entry in the circle, which includes tickets to films, regular programs and special events, is $175 and $325 for single and double memberships, respectively — but worth it for adventurers and enthusiasts of looking through pinholes poked in pieces of cardboard. Visit geographicalsociety.org for info.

$50 Registration cost for the Philadelphia Business Travel Association's third annual Holiday Dinner and Charity Auction, Dec. 6 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Sofitel Philadelphia. Proceeds from the event benefit the local BTA chapter and City of Hope, a biomedical research, treatment and educational institution dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer and other diseases. Visit phillybta.org to register. This way you can shop at the auction and simultaneously go splitsies on the cure for cancer. Running Numbers hooks you up, does it not?

Can I get your digits? I want to hear about the numerals you need to see. Let a number runner know at runningnumbers@gmail.com. Can't live without your weekly numberology? Bookmark running numbers at citypaper.net/runningnumbers.