Forty-five is 'o vino bbuono, the good wine. Not wine, good wine. The board specifies, and the specifying is the whole method.
That adjective is the same mechanism that sends a white cat to 31 and a black one to 17. A dreamer was expected to remember the detail, because the detail moved the number.
- 45
- 'O vino bbuono
- the good wine
- Row 41–50 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
No recorded reason. The doubled bb is regular Neapolitan lengthening after a vowel, the same phenomenon as 'o ccafè at 42.
Other things filed on 45
In Neapolitan life
The board's kitchen is unusually complete: beans at 10, coffee at 42, wine at 45, meat at 49, bread at 50, cooked soup at 68, the laid table at 82, cheese at 88. Whoever set it out was thinking about dinner rather often, which fits a game played on Christmas Eve.
45 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Because the smorfia works on detail. An adjective sends a dream to a different square, and the board records the version worth having.
No. Wine appears only once and only as good wine. The printed dictionary sends other kinds elsewhere by the glass and the barrel.