Today we celebrate the birthday of Nostradamus, born in 1503.

Fourteen is the sum of the first 3 squares: 1 + 4 + 9.

And 14 is the atomic number of silicon. Silicon-based sentient life has been the stuff of many science fiction tales.

There are 14 stations of the Cross in Christian mythology.

In South America, fourteen is good luck (maybe because it’s the next number after 13?)

Those of us who love to read are always coming across the span of time known as a fortnight. I believe it’s a shortened expression for fourteen nights; in other words, two weeks.

I have read in several places that Johann Sebastian Bach was a believer in numerology (he is forgiven his superstition in light of his magnificent music). If you assign number values to each letter of the alphabet, then B + A + C + H = 14. He also incorporated numeration in his music.

There are 14 lines in a sonnet. Go ahead, google the following if you don’t believe me: “When in disgrace in fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate….” Never was a better moment of self-pity ever written. Shakespeare, Sonnet 29.

Finally, the ultimate in research: A pillbug has 14 legs. Count them. If you can see them, bug curled up and all.