I was thinking about Bacon numbers a couple of days ago, and noticed an article about Erdös-Bacon numbers on Wikipedia. Then I realised that if you scrunched up your eyes, squinted very hard, and somehow equated “actor” with “visual effects person who got credit on a movie”, I had a finite Erdös-Bacon number. With an Erdös number of at most 5 (one chain being P. Christensen, D. Salesin, L. Guibas, B. Aronov, and of course P. Erdös) the question is computing the Bacon number. I claim a link to Holly Hunter (from the Incredibles, of course) who was in End of the Line with Kevin Bacon. 5 + 2 = 7! Success! Okay, a very questionable result, but I’ll take it.

Susan wins (as usual) with an Erdös number of 4. Hmph.

My sister has a more legitimate claim to a Bacon number (also 2) since she appears (as a moving unrecognizable blur, if I recall) for a few frames in the otherwise deplorable movie Timecop (with Brent Woolsey, who was in Trapped with Kevin Bacon). I believe she’s one of the string quartet musicians who leave a restaurant before the bad guys show up and shoot up the place. Really. Unfortunately I don’t think she got credit for being a paid extra, even though they filmed her playing cello for a couple of days.