The reserved TCP and UDP port number for the host name server (NAMESERVER).

Gathered from various websites on the net, these seem to be the most interesting and untarnished facts on the number 42:

The ASCII code for 42 is the asterisk: *, which we all have used at one time or another as a shortcut for "everything".

42 degrees is the angle of refraction in a water droplet which creates a spectrum, or rainbow.

42 in binary is 101010. (as already stated above)

A pair of dice have a total of 42 dots.

42 is the natural vibration frequency of human DNA. I'm not sure of the details on this one. Is it Hz, or what?

A barrel of oil contains 42 U.S. gallons.

42

Because Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers was the first African American to play Major League Baseball, and since he was a Hall of Fame caliber player, he was quite famous. In 1999 Major League Baseball choose his number to be the first number retired (not to be used in the future) for all teams, all at the same time. Four active players who had the number at the time were allowed to keep the number.

And BANG, it comes to you
the divine inspiration
given to you
by what can be considered 'god'

you are worth it
you have been declared worthy
by the powers that be
to know why

the meaning of life
the reason
the purpose we are on this
rotating globe in space

the question
that has been plaguing
the greatest of minds

and you know the answer

and you sit back
and weep
- (c) Life101, 1999

Here are some places where 42 pops up. Read in to theses as much as you like.

Purposeful (I think):

• There are 42 decks on the Enterprise NCC1701-D (The Next Generation ship)
• Fox Mulder's apartment number is 42

Coincidences?:

• 42 people died at Chernobyl
• 42-79 gigahertz is the natural vibration of human DNA
• 42-79 gigahertz is the natural vibration of white mouse DNA
• A marathon is 42km
• A 42mph wind brought down the original Tacoma bridge in the state of Washington in the 1930's
• A first star was found that has a planet circling around it. It is 42 light years away from earth
• Elvis's father died at the age of 42
• If you drilled a frictionless hole through the earth from one point to another it would take 42 minutes for gravity to pull you from one side of the tunnel to the other
• Only 42% of the 2nd class passengers on the Titanic survived
• There are 42 eyes in a deck of cards
• The right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long
• There were 42 events at the first modern Olympics
• There are 42 rooms, including baths but excluding closets, in the White House
• The angle at which light reflects off of water to create a rainbow is 42 degrees
• The Cuban Missile Crisis was over the placement of 42 Soviet missiles in Cuba
• There were 42 generations between Abraham and Jesus
• The tank of a "Ford Fiesta" holds 42 gallons of gas
• The tank of a "GMC Suburban" holds 42 gallons of gas
• The first book printed on the Gutenburg press was a Bible with 42 lines on each page
• There is very often a 42 on the zipper of Levi's jeans
• There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil
• The physical constants in the universe are the speed of light and the diameter of a proton. It takes light 10 to the -42nd of a seconds to cross the diameter of a proton
• The city of Jerusalem covers an area of 42 square miles.
• Napoleon graduated 42nd in his class at Brienne military school
• Elvis died at the age of 42
• This sentence is forty-two characters long
• Dogs have a total of 42 teeth over their lifetimes.

Regarding mE123's writeup:

Coincidences:

• I've read conflicting reports. Some say 42, some say 31.
• Human DNA is actually documented between 52 and 78 gigahertz.
• I can't find any information about white mouse DNA.
• There are marathons that come in 21km, 42km, and 56km.
• Yes, it was a 42MPH wind.
• 51 Pegasus is 40 Light years from Earth.
• Vernon Presley was born in 1916, and died in 1979. He was 63.
• I've attempted the math regarding this point, and have been unsuccessful. This one is unconfirmed.
• Out of the 285 Second Class passengers aboard, 118 were saved. The actual percentage is 41.40350877192983. Rounding, it would actually come to 41%.
• Huh? On a picture card, there are four eyes - Two on each image of the member of royalty. There are three picture cards per suit, and four suits. 3*4=12 12*4=48. Perhaps you mean unblinking eyes? (My Mistake! I forgot that some picture cards are portrayed with their heads to the side. Thanks to Bad Loser and Captain Wings)
• Yes. Her left arm is 42 Feet, 0 Inches.
• The "First Modern Olympics" were held in Athens in 1896. There were 43 events.
• The White House has 132 Rooms.
• To make a rainbow, light reflects at an angle between 40 and 42 degrees.
• Correct.
• I don't know the Bible too well. I've seen documents that say 42, and I've seen some that say 41.
• What the hell kind of Ford Fiesta are you looking at? The Fiesta 3-door holds 8.8 gallons.
• The Chevrolet Suburban does hold 42 gallons of fuel.
• Your math is right, but your spelling is wrong. The "Gutenberg Bible" is another name for the 42-line Bible.
• I don't know the facts behind this. Maybe the size of the jeans is imprinted on the zipper?
• Correct.
• I'm not about to try and calculate this. I'll take your word for it.
• Britannica says 42. Correct again.
• All the sources I can find that state this are other "42 sites." A grain of salt.
• Elvis was born in 1935, and died in 1977. He was indeed 42.
• That is not a sentence; There's no period at the end. (38 Characters, 4 spaces if you want to get technical.)
• Adult dogs do have a total of 42 teeth. (6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars and 4 molars on the upper jaw, 6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars and 6 molars on the lower jaw.)

---

• I have 42 shirts hanging up in the closet.
• The above sentence (counting spaces) is 42 characters long. (Cue weird music!)

The number 42 seems to have had some special signifigance to Lewis Carroll. It is reported that 42 was Carroll's Magic Number, although to be honest i haven't the slightest clue what that means. At any rate the man seems to have had a thing going for the number.

The book Alice in Wonderland has exactly 42 illustrations not counting the cover, and near the end references a Rule 42 in the judicial code of Wonderland: All persons more than a mile high are to leave the court.

It is in Carroll's undisputed nonsense masterwork The Hunting of the Snark, however, that these things begin to get interesting:

• Lewis Carroll was 42 years of age at the time the Agony was written.
• The baker, the effective hero of the epic (who, as it happens, is believed by many (including me) to have been intended as a stand-in or metaphor for Lewis Carroll himself), is strongly implied to be 42 years of age (see Snark Fit 3 The Baker's Tale, stanza 5).
• Also, the Baker attempts to take with him on the quest 42 pieces of luggage, which are mistakenly left behind (see Snark Fit 1 The Landing, stanza 7). Many interpret this as being one bag for each year of the Baker/Carroll's life, the emotional baggage that the Baker must leave behind in order to go on his quest for the snark.
• And, of course, the preface (see snark preface) contains a reference to another Rule 42, this one the very Western No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm.

This writeup created with the help of the Annotated Edition of the Hunting of the Snark, and http://www.empirenet.com/~dljones/

42 is a domino game born in the Texas Bible-Belt. Since playing cards are considered morally questionable, dominoes are a popular game. Sometime lost in the misty past, a clever young Baptist determined that dominoes could be used to form a card game. So he (or she) invented 42.

42 is a game in the vein of Spades, and Bridge, it probably falls somewhere between the two in complexity. As spades & bridge, there are two teams of two players, and the two players sit across from one another, and bidding on 'tricks' is an important part of the game. 42 is played with 'Double-Six' dominoes, where there are every combination of dominoes from blank-blank to six-six, for a total of 28 dominoes.

A Lexicon of 42 Terminology

• SHAKE - The domino equivalent of dealing. Whoever 'has the shake' will turn all dominoes face-down and mix them around.
• HAND - Each player will draw 7 dominoes from the pool (all dominoes will be used - there is no discard pile in 42). These are the dominoes he will use for this hand. This is identical to the card term.
• SUIT - There are seven 'suits' in 42, blank through six. All dominoes, except for the doubles (blank-blank, one-one, etc) have two suits. For example, the six-four is both a six and a four. This is also identical to the card term.
• DOUBLE - A domino which has the same number at both ends is a double, ie 5-5, 3-3, or 1-1. These are the highest dominoes in their suit.
• LEAD - The player who will lay the first domino in a trick 'has the lead'.
• TRICK - Each player lays down one domino. The highest domino in the suit will take that 'trick'. This term is also shared with cards.
• COUNT - Dominoes whose dot value adds to five or ten will score that amount of points when taken in a trick. The five-count dominoes are _-5, 1-4, and 3-2, and the ten-count dominoes are the 5-5 and the 6-4.
• BID - At the start of each hand, each player will bid on what score he thinks he can achieve, in terms of tricks and count dominoes. Effectively identical to the bridge & spades term.
• TRUMP - Any domino with the number of the trump suit is a trump. Trump dominoes will automatically win a trick, unless a higher trump is played.
• FOLLOW ME - Rather than call a trump, a player may choose to play with no trumps at all, and will call 'follow me' instead of naming a trump.
• MARK - If, at the end of a hand, the winning bidder's team has scored as many or more points as the bid, that team receives a mark. If not, the mark goes to the opposing team. It is possible to bid more than one mark on a hand under some circumstances, explained below.
• NELL-O - A bidder who bids one or more mark on a hand may choose to 'go nell-o,' where he will attempt not to take any tricks, explained below.
• PLUNGE - A bidder who bids at least three marks and has at least four doubles may choose to 'plunge' in which his partner will call the trump.
• SEVENS - A bidder who bids at least one mark may choose to call sevens, in which each player plays his domino whose ends added together is closest to equaling seven (for example, _-_ would be zero, 6-6 would be twelve, and 3-4 would be seven). This is an awful game, requiring no skill or strategy, and has never been allowed in games that I've played.
• TABLE TALK - Any talk at the table which disguises hints for your partner. This is a form of cheating. "Does anybody want anything TO drink?" would be an unsubtle example of table talk.
• Walker - A domino that is not a double or a trump, but which will still win a trick if led. For example, if all the trumps have been played, and both the 6-6 and 6-5 have been played, then if you lead the 6-4, it would be a walker, since there would be no domino left which could beat it.
• Lay-Down Hand - A lay down hand is a hand of dominoes that can't be beaten. This is the equivalent to a royal flush in poker, but is probably a little more common. It's generally best to play through a lay-down hand, rather than simply proclaiming it and laying out your dominoes, since if you claim that you can't be beaten and lay down your dominoes, and there's any way you could have lost a hand, you lose.

Order of Play

Getting Started

To start the game, the dominoes are laid out face down, and shaken. Each player draws a single domino. The player with the highest total value will have the first shake.

Shake & Bid

The shaker shakes the dominoes again. Each player draws seven dominoes. By convention, the other team picks first, then the shaker's partner, and finally the shaker takes the last seven dominoes. This is to ensure that he cannot palm a good domino and keep track of where it is.

Once each player has inspected his hand, the player to the left of the shaker will bid first, proceeding to the left until the shaker bids last. Any player may choose to pass, bidding nothing. The minimum bid allowed is thirty. If a player believes he can take all the tricks, or can successfully go nell-o, he can bid one or two marks (sometimes these bids are termed 42 or 84). Once two marks have been bid, each successive player may increase the bid by one mark, if they choose to. The exception to this rule is a 'plunge' which requires a three-mark bid. Thus the highest the bid can ever go is 6 marks, where the first player bids on a plunge hand and each successive player bids up by one mark. I cannot imagine that this would seriously happen.

Calling the Trump and Playing the First Trick

The player with the highest bid will either choose which suit is trump, or call nell-o or plunge. In addition to calling a suit as trump, he may name doubles as the trump, or may call 'follow me' in which there is no trump.

After calling the trump, that player will lead the first trick. He will lay down the first domino. The highest number on this domino will determine the suit for this trick. For example, if he calls sixes as trump, and then lays the 5-3, the suit of the trick is 5. Each player in will lay down one domino, starting to the left of the lead. Each player must play in suit if possible. In this example, any player who has a domino with a five on it will have to play it. If the player possesses no fives, he may play any domino he chooses.

There is one tricky exception to this rule. A trump domino - the 6-5 in the above example - is always a trump, and does not count as a five in terms of following suit. A player may only play a trump if he cannot follow suit. So a player who has the 6-5 and the 5-4 must play the 5-4, rather than trump-in with the 6-5. Conversely, a player who has no fives but the 6-5 is not required to play his trump, and may play any domino in his hand.

The player who laid the highest value domino within the suit will take the trick. The double is always the strongest card in the suit. So for the suit of five, the precedent for winning a trick will go as follows: 5-5, 5-6, 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 5-_. A trump will always take a trick. If more than one trump is played, the highest trump will take the trick, following the aforementioned precedent rules. Whoever takes the trick then takes the lead for the next trick.

Scoring

Once all seven tricks have been played, you count up the score for that hand by counting one point for each trick, and adding the score from the count dominoes. There are seven tricks, two ten-count dominoes, and three five-count dominoes, for a total of 42 points per hand - hence the name of the game. If the team who won the bid actually made their bid, then they get one mark. If not, the other team gets that mark. If the winning bid was one mark or higher, that team must have taken all the tricks, or else the other team gets the number of marks bid. (The exception being nell-o, discussed below.)

Marks may be recorded as simple marks on a paper, but it is traditional to record each mark as a stroke in a letter, forming the words ALL or YALL depending on whether you are playing to seven or ten marks. The first team to completely spell the word wins.

Special Cases

For bids of one mark or more, there are special 'games' you can play. The most common and most popular is nell-o. Another optional rule which I never allow is 'sevens', and for a bid of three marks or more, you can go 'plunge'. To use one of these methods, make a bid high enough to allow the type of game that you want, but do not specify how you will be playing (if you bid "One mark, I'm going nell-o!" you tell the next bidder that you've got a lot of low dominoes in your hand, so he might feel more confident bidding 2 marks on a high hand).

If you win the bid, you then tell whether you are going nell-o, plunge, or (if allowed) sevens. Of course, you may also play a normal game and simply try to win all the tricks.

Nell-o

Nell-o is a game in which you intend to lose every trick. When calling nell-o, you have the option of specifying whether doubles are high in their suit, or if they are a suit of their own. If they are a suit of their own, then when a double is led, the you must lay down doubles, rather than following suit based on the number. This allows the crafty nell-o bidder to protect a 4-4 with the _-_, if he doesn't have a low four to cover it. The key to a good nell-o hand is not to simply have a weak hand, but to have cover of low dominoes for all your high dominoes.

The order of play for Nell-o is a bit odd. The bidder's partner lays down his dominoes, and does not participate in the hand. Therefore each trick only has three dominoes. The bidder leads the first hand, and if he takes any trick, he loses his bid.

I have heard tell that there are crazed Aggies out there who allow nell-o bidders to call doubles low in their suit. This is generally regarded as foolishness, since it allows you to bid nell-o on otherwise strong hands (doubles are strong dominoes). I have not confirmed the existence of this variant.

Plunge

Plunge requires a bid of three marks, and the bidder must have 4 or more doubles. Once the bidder has won the bid, he announces his intention to plunge. At this point, his partner must call the trump. The bidder then leads the first hand, and play proceeds normally. The bidder's team must take all the tricks. If not, they loose all three marks.

Sevens

This is extremely silly, and my opposition to it is both complete, and vehement. The basic idea is that everyone has to play their domino whose values are closest to seven. If this is ever anyone but the bidder or his partner, the bidder loses. This is the only game that allows absolutely no strategy during the hand. As such, it is about as fun as filling out a tax form. There may be other rules to this, but I don't know, because I don't play this variant.

To Learn To Play

The best way to learn is to play. Preferably with folks who both know how to play and are willing to teach. For Windows users, there is a shareware forty-two application on the web. I do not currently know of a Linux or Mac version. Also, the book Winning 42: Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas by Dennis Roberson (Texas Tech University Press, ISBN 0896724433)