found the following story in the latest issue of New Scientist :

OWNERS of Apple Mac computers are often quick to explain why Macs are superior to Windows PCs, and in particular how less prone they are to bugs and viruses. What they often fail to mention is that when Macs do have bugs they can be weird indeed.

An anonymous reader of the website Macintouch.com describes a "known" problem with AppleWorks version 6 for the Mac: "When typing long documents, when you get somewhere into page 42 all the text disappears. No one knows why (or is not telling)."

Feedback would find this quirk pretty exasperating, but the writer is reassuring: "Do not panic. The text has only changed to the colour white. Simply 'Select All' (Command-A), then change the text colour to black. Save immediately, then immediately paste in enough text to get beyond page 42. Save again."

We shall pass over the fact that having to do this could well bring on an attack of computer rage, and ask instead: could there be a reason why this problem only occurs on page 42?

methinks 42 must surely refer to Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (you know, god's putative answer to creation) : some of the code monkeys must have hidden a "feature" inside the software which reacts when the document arrives at page 42