<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/08/26/jerry-nelson-count-esame-street-dies-at-78/" >Jerry Nelson</a>, Count von Count on the beloved Sesame Street program, died on Aug 23, 2012 at the age of 78. During an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19409960" >interview</a> with the Count, the question what is your favorite number? was asked and his answer was 34,969. Why that number?Here are some suggestions from the article ...The team were stumped. It's a square-root thing, the Count added, by way of explanation.34,969 is 187 squared. But why 187?More or Less turned to its listeners for help.Toby Lewis noted that 187 is the total number of points on the tiles of a Scrabble game, speculating that the Count might have counted them.David Lees noticed that 187 is the product of two primes - 11 and 17 - which makes 34,969 a very fine number indeed, being 11 squared times 17 squared. What, he asked, could be lovelier?And Simon Philips calculated that 187 is 94 squared minus 93 squared - and of course 187 is also 94 plus 93. An embarrassment of riches!But both he and Toby Lewis hinted at darkness behind the Count's carefree laughter and charming flashes of lightning: 187 is also the American police code for murder.Murder squared: was the Count trying to tell us something?Why do you think the Count's favourite number was 34,969?
