What connection is there between what sounds like a very heavy dirigible's greatest hit, and 267 and 619?

looney_tunes

Here's a start: Led Zeppelin's biggest hit, although never released as a single, was "Stairway to Heaven". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin Now for the numbers. Probably not relevant, but numbers with area code 619 and starting with 267 are in National City, California - near San Diego. http://phones.whitepages.com/619-267-2850 HO 267/619 is a 1924 bill relating to ministerial powers in Northern Ireland. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=1833726&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 And I'm pretty sure Baloo isn't referring to the fact that Shop 267 in Doncaster Shoppingtown (619 Doncaster Road) is Esprit. http://www.brownbook.net/business/8451763/esprit-retail-pty-ltd Or that "Science 3" February 1995: Vol. 267. no. 5198, p. 619 has an article titled "Salk Gets Crick Permanently ... Sort Of". http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/citation/267/5198/619-b The Doncaster shopping center is a Westfield center, and there is one of these in National City, CA! (But no Esprit.) http://shopwestfieldplazabonita.com/storelist/D-F Okay, this is not getting any connection to the starting point, but you do find some interesting stuff when you look. Oct 15 09, 3:50 PM

looney_tunes

And, unfortunately, Jacob's Ladder (Genesis, 28:11-19) is not stated to have either 267 or 619 steps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Ladder And the number shown at the end of the 1990 film "Jacob's Ladder" was US 21 719 365. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Ladder_(film) And none of the songs with this title have either of these numbers involved, as far as I can see. At least I am narrowing the search area for others! The South Park episode "A Heavenly Ladder" had production number 612 (Series 6, Episode 12) - close but no cigar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ladder_to_Heaven And an escalator to the start reaching up 100,000 km would have far too many steps! http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/sep/13/spaceexploration.sciencenews Isn't anyone going to put me out of my misery? Oct 15 09, 4:09 PM

Baloo55th

Looking back over Baloo's recent questions could provide a hint.... (Yes, OK, they're as random a bunch of topics as you might hope not to find in an exam, but one of them IS relevant. Last two or three weeks. It's a hint that will require more research, though.) Stairway to Heaven by Zep is correct, but it is incorrect to say it wasn't released as a single. 1972 in the Phillipines, on Atlantic (7 inch) and 1978 in Brazil, on WEA (12 inch). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairway_to_Heaven Not many people know that.... Oct 16 09, 4:59 AM

Baloo55th

OK. The numbers are not connected to Zep, just their hit. There's a clue somewhere in one of these topics: the African president one, the conductor and the rabbit one, the medieval forgery one, the not-so-musty Egyptian tomb one, or the steelman's brave daughter one. Oh yes, there's a bit more of a clue in the current cartoon question. In the question itself, not its subject. Baloo is now practically flu-less, but as he has demonstrated is not clueless. He thinks he has missed the rather pleasant bit of weather while he's been laid up.... Oct 17 09, 3:48 PM

looney_tunes

Slow to respond, because I was busy. Having duly scanned back to find the range of questions in recent Baloo postings, I settled on the pyramids as being the most likely. Bingo! ""When viewed from Egypt, the stars surrounding the pole-star are never seen to set. For this reason, the Egyptians called them ihmw-sk, ‘the ones that know not destruction’. It was the kings wish to ascend to the circumpolar stars, and the Pyramid Texts (Utterances 267 and 619 speak of the king doing so by means of a great staircase. The step pyramid may have been designed as just a staircase, providing the king with a very concrete means of ascending to the sky. (Note that the determinative of the Egyptian verb ‘r', ‘to ascend’, resembles a step pyramid [Edwards 1993: 281]. Although the Pyramid Texts were only written down in the late Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, their language and content strongly suggest an earlier composition (cf. Edwards 1993:24). Therefore it is not inappropriate to use them to illuminate royal mortuary ideology of the early dynastic period." (Wilkinson 2001: 258)" http://www.kolumbus.fi/lea.tedder/OKAD/pyrorien.htm Oct 17 09, 7:47 PM

Baloo55th

Yay! Quite a tricky one. Sometimes referred to as spells (which explains the apparent irrelevancy above about the weather), these 'utterances' are the masses of little pics on the walls of Egyptian tombs etc. My source book (Edwards, 1947 revised 1961) calls them Spells, and uses 'staircase to heaven' as the translation. There is no sign (given the date of the book) of any derivation either way. Some think the step pyramids were built that way to make a stairway for the departed ruler. Others, more practically, reckon that the builders of step pyramids just hadn't got the technology yet. Oct 18 09, 7:18 AM