Stop for a second and think about the coming year, 2009, paying particular attention to...

The number nine.

It's just a number, but it's not just a number.

Numbers have all sorts of meaning and practical uses attached to them. Some of those meanings are amusing; some are sacred.

It's fun to stop and think about how we've put this particular number to use in our culture.

Take a look and welcome, everybody, to '09, served up below in nine parts.

Sports

Rounders is a sport similar to baseball. It's played mostly in the United Kingdom, and no more than nine players from a team are allowed on the field at one time. Sound familiar?

Speaking of baseball, Roger Maris wore the No. 9 jersey.

Hockey great Wayne Gretzky wore No. 99.

Nine-ball is a form of billiards played in the United States. It's easy to find a game at a local bar.

Ninepin bowling is a game played in Europe. The ball is smaller and lighter than the one used in American bowling. And let's be honest, the bowlers probably are, too.

Golf has a front nine and a back nine making up a course's 18 holes. And ... any Niners fans in the house?

Arts and culture

There are nine circles of hell in Dante's "Divine Comedy." Just think, you'd have been set for a pub quiz back in 1400 with that one.

The nine noble virtues supposedly admired by the Vikings were hospitality, courage, truth, loyalty, honor, self-reliance, industriousness, perseverance and discipline. If you have a couple of these, you are at least an OK human being.

Nine rings of power were "given to mortal men doomed to die" in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. There's a superstition - nay, a curse - in classical music that a composer who writes a ninth symphony will soon meet his death (think of Beethoven's unfinished 10th).

Then again, if you are prolific enough to write nine symphonies, are you really cursed? "Seinfeld" ran for nine seasons. What's the deal with that?

Ice-9 is a tricky substance Kurt Vonnegut came up with in "Cat's Cradle."

Anyone who was around for vinyl probably tried to spin the Beatles' "Revolution 9" backward. John Lennon in his solo career went on to record "#9 Dream."

"Love Potion No. 9" was a pretty big hit for the Clovers.

"I didn't know if it was day or night/I started kissin' everything in sight. ..."

A typical Rubik's cube has nine squares on each agonizing, impossible side.

Sudoku puzzles have nine large squares, each with nine smaller squares.

To get to Hogwarts, you'll have to board the train at Platform 93/4.

The ninth James Bond movie was "The Man With the Golden Gun." It starred Roger Moore.

The tech-savvy use T9 settings on their cell phones to text faster than the usual setting. If you don't know how, ask your kids. Life will get much easier.

Politics and political history Nine justices make up the U.S. Supreme Court.

On 9/9 in 1850, California became the 31st state. On that same date, but in 1776, the Continental Congress named this country of ours the United States.

California's 9th Congressional District covers a big chunk of the East Bay.

Title IX ended sexual discrimination in education in any program receiving federal financial assistance. So the battle of the sexes can rage on, but Uncle Sam isn't paying for it.

The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution addresses the people's rights that are not specifically detailed in the Constitution. So no one is going to stop you playing hearts with a flamingo named "George."

Science

Human mothers carry their unborn babies for nine months. Other animals with similar gestation periods include gorillas, orangutans and bison.

Nine is the atomic number of fluorine.

Before Pluto was publicly disgraced in 2006, there were nine planets in our solar system.

Religion and myth

There are nine classical Muses derived from Greek mythology.

Many Buddhist rituals typically involve nine monks. Jewish tradition stipulates that on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, both temples in Jerusalem were destroyed.

Atum-Ra, the sun god to the ancient Egyptians, produced other gods, including Osiris and Isis. They were known as the Nine or the Ennead.

Call The Bee's Rachael Bogert, (916) 321-1052.