Fans of
David Beckham and
Michael Jordan have reason to be keen on the number 23, sported on the shirts of their heroes. However, they are probably unaware that followers of Discordianism, a self-styled religion that began in the 1950s, believe that the number 23 is holy. American writer
William S. Burroughs became obsessed with the number, keeping a scrapbook of events connected to it, and it has spawned a number of books and films, including "The Number 23," starring Jim Carrey as a man fixated on the number.