all good things come in threes

"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin.

Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less.

Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.

Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.

Five is right out.

Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

-- [Monty Python and the Holy Grail]

the three musketeers.  the rule of thirds.  there are three wise men, not five.  there is that bit about goldilocks and the three bears, and the pythagoreans would have us believe that three is the noblest of all numbers.  we all get three strikes before we're counted out, and mothers always count to three (although sometimes, when they're really pissed, they can forget about one and two and immediately jump to three).

on the other hand, we don't always get second chances, and there are four horsemen of the apocalypse.  coincidentally, "four" sounds like "death" in some asian languages.   five, as the grenade's manual says, is right out and six is the devil's number. plus the gates of hell open on july, the seventh month.  and let's not even get started about the number thirteen.

three it is then.

so on to more teasing, this time with three pictures, because one is such a lonely number and two is just too square, too perfect.

teasing in threes, though, makes it a good kind of teasing.  not too little, not too much.

it is teasing of just the right sort, because indeed good things do come in threes.