Preface: On Number 96

Stanford Bronze Plaque 96
in honor of Class of 1996
Stanford's Memorial Quad

There are two Stanford Bronze Plaques 96 in the Memorial Quad at Stanford University.
The first Plaque 96 is located directly at the front door of Memorial Church, and is dedicated
to the Class of 1896. The first graduating class at Stanford was 1892. Another Plaque 96 near
Building 80 (Dept. of Human Biology) is dedicated to the Class of 1996. I've used this latter
Plaque 96 as the cover for On Number 96 since it's fresher and clearer.

As part of my compilations of Numbers, web pages on "Number 96" were completed on
November 17, 2004, in honor of Mom's 96th birthday— solar calendar: October 30, 1908
lunar calendar: Oct. 6, 1908 which fell on November 17, 2004.

Cornell Professor Harold A. Scheraga was my doctorate advisor (1963-1970), where I did my Ph.D. in physical chemistry of macromolecules. I've been sending him birthday greetings each year. For his 96th birthday on October 18, 2017, I added 27 more items to "Number 96", and revised many of the old web links that were outdated from 13 years ago.

Best By Number: Who Wore What With Distinction (2006) enabled me to include five sports players with uniform #96. Photos were added to 96th Street West Side & East Side IRT Subway Stations, Ninety-Six, South Carolina, and European Route E96. In Science & Technology section, #50-53 included Sputnik 1 that orbited Earth in 96.2 minutes, VF-96 Fighter Jet. SS-96 Navy Submarine, and Type 96 Chinese Tank.

Added section on "96 in Collectibles, Coins & Postage Stamps, #90-98, with 1996 China Panda Gold Coin, "Liberty Head" 1896-S Morgan Silver Dollar, Marvel stamp #96 of Dr. Octopus, #96 Topps cards from Wings, World on Wheels, Look 'n See, and Scoop. U.S. postage stamps with 96¢ denomination include "Justice" Newspaper stamps (1885 & 1894) and Wine Tax stamp (1942). 96¢ foreign stamps include Queen Victoria shown on Ceylon #73 (1872), Hong Kong #7 (1862), and Strait Settlements #18 (1867). My old copy of 1975 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue was consulted to locate these 96¢ stamps.

Four #96 poems were added to the new "Number 96"— Tomas Tranströmer's "A Part of the Forest", Kay Ryan's "Witness", James Richardson's 96th Aphorism from "Vectors 3.0", and Jane Hirshfield's selection of Mirabai's "Song of the Flute".

Peter Y. Chou
Mountain View, October 18, 2017