Running Numbers

Run for the Treasure

by Nick Norlen

Running Numbers has anticipated the disappointment you'll feel tomorrow when you see National Treasure: Book of Secrets and realize its creators swayed from the original by taking the treasure hunt out of Philly. My holiday gift to you, oh readers with bad taste in movies, is to bring the hunt back to town. Lo, the Running Numbers Treasure Run is upon us. Here's how it works: Each one of the numbers below will lead to a word or phrase, each of which should be used, in order, to fill in the blanks to form the first half of a statement. The first person to e-mail runningnumbers@gmail.com with the correct completion of the statement will win the grand prize: a treasure chest brimming with silver coins! OK, so it's a toy box filled with SEPTA tokens. But pieces of eight won't get you anywhere these days. (Five runners-up will receive nifty CP swag.) Godspeed.

A politically correct _70_ _71st_ _28th_ _3/4_ a _279th_ _4th_ is ...

70 Age of this founding father when he signed the Declaration of Independence, making him the oldest to do so.

71st Position of this word following the phrase "let facts be submitted to a candid world" in the Declaration of Independence.

28th Position of this word in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution.

¾ Fraction of legislatures, according to the Preamble to the Bill of Rights, required to ratify articles as amendments to the Constitution. This word qualifies "legislatures" in that passage.

279th Position of this word in the preface to William Penn's Frame of Government.

4th Position of this word in the passage that starts at the far top left of the William Penn timeline at Welcome Park.

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.