LOS ANGELES — In-N-Out Burger has removed the number 67 from its order system, which is the thing it did, and the thing it did because of the viral “6-7” trend, which is the thing a lot of people were doing, and the thing a lot of people were doing was, in the main, standing in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant and waiting to hear a number called over a loudspeaker.

The way it worked, per the people who were doing it, was that you ordered, and you waited, and the numbers went up, and 66 would come, and then 68 would come, and 67 would, in the main, come in between, and the coming of 67 was, in the main, the point, and the point of the point was that 6-7 is the most fun number in the In-N-Out order system, and the order system was, in the main, the thing that had 67 in it, until it did not.

"They just don't call 67 anymore" — a regular, on the weekend the number stopped coming

The change was, in the main, quiet. The chain did not put out a statement. The chain did not hold a press conference. The chain did not, in the main, do the thing where a company explains why it removed a number, because the number is not a menu item, and the number is not a product, and the number is, in the main, just a number, and a number that a lot of people wanted to hear. The chain looked at the number, and the chain looked at the parking lot, and the chain did the thing.

The part of the story that belongs in the first paragraph is what a “6-7” actually is, and the answer is that nobody can say, in the main, and the not being able to say it is, in the main, the thing that made it the thing. A 6-7 is a thing you order at In-N-Out, and the thing is a burger, and the burger is, in the main, a burger, and the number is the part that everyone was chasing, and the burger is the part that almost nobody remembered.

THE NUMBER 67: A TALE OF THE TAPE

  • The number: 67
  • The trend: the "6-7"
  • The activity: waiting in the lot to hear it called
  • The crowd: "a lot of people," per the people
  • The fix: delete 67 from the sequence
  • Now: 66, then 68

The practical effect of removing a number from a sequence is that the sequence now has a hole in it, and the hole is, in the main, 67, and the people who came for 67 are now going to be, in the main, waiting for a number that is not going to come, and the waiting is, in the main, the thing, and the thing that the waiting is for is, in the main, not there.

A food scientist who studies the way people order at fast food restaurants said the trend was “a good example of the power of anticipation,” and added that the burger, in the main, was probably fine, and the number, in the main, was the part that mattered, and the mattering is, in the main, now over.

At press time, In-N-Out, in the main, had not, in the main, commented, which is the way a chain with a parking lot full of people who came for a number answers a question about the number, and 66 is, in the main, still 66, and 68 is, in the main, still 68, and the thing between them is, in the main, now a thing that is not.