All Over Albany

Corning Tower was completed in 1973. Corning died (thus ending his "reign" as mayor) in 1983. Did the architects know he was going to die in 10 years? The implication is that the number of stories in the Tower was a kind of tribute rather than a coincidence.

... said chrisck on Oct 7, 2009 at 2:56 PM | link

@chrisck: Hmm... that's the way I read it originally, but as you point out that seems unlikely. I've edited the above.

... said Greg on Oct 7, 2009 at 3:01 PM | link

@greg: It must be a conspiracy!

It must be that Erastus was:
a) kept on life support until his reign was the same as # of floors
b) was murdered when his reign was the same as # of floors
c) was cryogenically frozen for those years
d) was dead all along, explaining why he wasn't seen presiding over the big May Day parades in downtown Albany.

I'm gonna go with D myself.

... said komradebob on Oct 7, 2009 at 3:17 PM | link

Oh come on, everybody knows the Corning Tower has 42 floors because the Corning Tower's floor count is the answer to life, the universe and everything. Why else would I-787 look like it was designed by the Vogon Interstellar Highway Construction Force?

... said Chuck Miller on Oct 7, 2009 at 3:33 PM | link

Erastus had 7 wives, who each had 6 kids, that's 42 kids. He also had two sets of false teeth with 21 teeth in each set, that's 42 teeth. He walked 42 steps from his Mayor's office to the bathroom and chewed his food 42 times before swallowing. Finally, he had a dog named Rasty that died at age 6 (6 x 7 dog years = 42).

Not to be outdone, Mayor Jennings visits the Forever Orange Tanning Salon 42 times a month.

... said Barold on Oct 7, 2009 at 3:40 PM | link

Wrong! The corning tower has forty-two stories, a number composed of the digits 4 and 2. These are codes for the forth and second letters of the alphabet “D” and “B”. DB stands for the glam rocker David Bowie, who, in 1969 composed the song “Space Oddity. This is widely known to be a play on the title for a 1968 Stanley Kubric film entitled “2001: A Space Odyssey.” A movie, which I’m sure I do not need to remind our readers, prominently featured a mysterious monolith. The monolith in the film is of the same shape and proportions as the Corning Tower!!! Which according to Wikipedia are “advanced machines built by extra terrestrials.” So there you have it folks! The Corning Tower is actual an advanced machine built by extra terrestrials. This fits in well with the already well document fact that the egg is in actuality and alien UFO.

Dan Brown eat your heart out.

... said Jackers on Oct 7, 2009 at 4:52 PM | link

Between the 16 and 17th floors of the Tower, the staircase switches from one side of the building to the other. This junction is the only point in the 42 flights where the stair case is closed (can't see down to the next flight) as opposed to open. At this junction, there is a section of the stairs that you can hide behind - the only such section in the tower. I'll leave it at that.

... said Barold on Oct 7, 2009 at 7:14 PM | link

There was probably also a conspiracy to kill birds. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=849460.

... said biodiva on Oct 7, 2009 at 9:06 PM | link

Can I just say, I think if we had more tall buildings in Albany, we could have more movies filmed here, maybe even one called Adventures in Smallbany, starring Joe Bruno and Henry Zwack as a hilarious duo that has a secret hideout underneath the tallest overpass, righting wrongs and trashbarrels in Lincoln Park alike.

... said pete on Oct 7, 2009 at 11:28 PM | link

Chuck, you make me happy.

... said mirdreams on Oct 8, 2009 at 10:17 AM | link