central perk. i'm reading this book called urban tribes. i've been meaning to read it ever since it came out a few years ago. i knew that contained within this book (however critically acclaimed, or not, it was) would be answers to many questions that i've sought over a lifetime. someone was going to tell me why i value my friends more than almost anything else -- food, family, fornicating. and that someone would also tell me why this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. someone would also justify my existence in the universe, and all for under twenty dollars.

so pretty much anything interesting that i write about in the next few days/weeks will be gleened from urban tribes. all thoughts from here on out will be totally unoriginal. i know, totally not what you're used to. protest if you must. just keep it peaceful.

a long while back, i read something about how the number 150 represented the maximum number of individuals that we're hardwired to have social relationships with. that seemed like a really high number. urban tribes cites the same source and takes it a bit further. the mind boggling number of 150 actually represents the maximum, including friends and acquaintances. the real number of non-acquaintance friend is more like thirty seven, and these "bands" can range in size from twelve to fifty. that number makes a lot more sense. i can envision having a friend circle of thirty seven. a friend circle of one hundred fifty? even if you have 199 friendsters, you probably don't have that many people you'd actually deem worthy of the term "friend."

but the number of thirty seven seems do-able. i think i have thirty seven people i could feel comfortable calling "friends." i think i could maintain a decent social network of friends that numbers somewhere around thirty seven. any bigger and you're really reaching uber-popular status. given the range of twelve to fifty, i feel like everyone has about that number of friends. one fifty was just too crazy. nobody can eat fifty eggs, nobody can have a hundred and fifty friends.

i also think that the term "band" refers to your current set of friends. you can easily have one or two hundred friends thoughout your life, but at any one time, you can probably only maintain the average of thirty seven-ish.

if anyone can maintain more than the upper limit of fifty friends in their "band," i'd like to know how you do it.