Columbia dorm phone numbers all start in 853, and Columbia building numbers all start in 854. Until yesterday, when a new Journalism School administrator entered the strange world of 851! From an e-mail sent to J-School students:

“___ comes to the J-school after spending the last seven years…

Her phone: 212-851—– (they’ve run out of the 854 prefix!)”

We know the J-School likes to keep its distance from other Columbia schools. Could this be the start of even further withdrawal? If you add up the numbers 8+5+1, you get 14, which symbolizes Jesus, his twelve disciples, and Mary Magdalene from that painting in the Da Vinci Code. Is the Grail right inside our very gates?! Only time will tell.