42

...minutes was the duration of the shortest recorded war in history, between the British Empire and the Sultanate of Zanzibar on August 27th 1896. Gunship diplomacy at it's best,  do as we say or we bomb your palace to smithereens. And smithereens worked, for after 42 minutes of naval bombardment in the currents of the Indian Ocean,  the Sultan surrendered and fled.

42 is also famously the answer to everything, according to Douglas Adams in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in which our planet is listed as ""mostly harmless".

Also mostly harmless was the 42nd installment of the Now Thats What I Call Music series, which included the then current musical travesties as the Vengaboys, Steps and Billie Piper.

In a similar vein, 42 is the amount of dollars I spent this month on my renal drugs. Currently at $5 an item plus a little extra for good luck, the government rather generously asks me to contribute towards the cost for my plethora of pills.

Not bad really as the overall cost to the taxpayer is over $3000 per month.


Thats enough to buy quite a few sultanas.