Monday, January 8, 2018

Squaring the Super Bowl

Some people are already collecting dollars to get a Super Bowl square and some already have their numbers.

For the few that don't understand, There is a 10 x 10 grid where people pay money to sign their name on one of the squares on it. Once all money is collected, numbers from 0-9 are randomly assigned one to each column and row and one team is assigned to the column and the other to the row. Winners are determined by the last digit of the teams' scores during certain points of the game and always based on the final score.

Generally, the draw of the numbers always produces bickering among those who have numbers that are less likely to appear in football than others since teams generally score 3 or 7 points at a time.

In the 51 previous games, there are 102 finishing numbers. Here is the layout:

 

I was surprised by how few final scores were a 3 and double checked to confirm that is the case.

There have only been three times when the margin of victory was 10 points yielding a 6-6 in SB8 and a 7-7 in SB17 and SB30.

One thing the person who runs the pool usually tells people who draw a 2, 5, or 8 is that there can be a 2 point safety which can produce weird numbers. That is WRONG. There have been 9 safeties in Super Bowl history. Here is a list of the final scores by the teams that scored one.


How have the unusual numbers happened?

The games ending in 2 were twice caused by scoring more 6 TD than FG, once due to a kicker missing 2 PAT, and once because of a 2 point conversion.

The games ending in 5 were caused 4 times by a team scoring 5 more TD than FG and once due to a 2pt conversion.

The games ending in 8 were caused 5 times by a team scoring 4 more TD than FG and once due to a 2pt conversion.

The games ending in 9 were caused 3 times by missing PAT, twice by a safety, once by a made 2pt conversion, once by failing two 2pt conversions, and once by a team scoring 7 TD.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

The scribbles of life

Being mechanically inept shows in ways others don't even think about. No matter how many times I tried over the decades, I can't "loop the loop" in tying shoelaces. It also shows when I write or print. I am fortunate that in the 21st century that I can express myself from a keyboard or a tablet since using a typewriter on this paragraph would have taken 45 minutes due to corrections in thought and typing.

Over the past three decades, I have worked in a place where I often have to sign my name multiple times during a day. I state that if I ever became infamous that my autograph would not be worth much due to this. In the early 90s, I once received a phone call at work from a lawyer since I signed for three cartons of bowling balls four years earlier from a company that was suing the Professional Bowlers Association.

Signing my name has become less a hassle than it used to be. In the past, I would often hear a comment about my last name from someone who seemed to think that they were being funny. One time while making an appointment to get medical clearance for life insurance, the person on the other end said "You will get a call from a nurse Mr. Holmes" and then laughed before hanging up. (15 minutes later, I had a new company for insurance. I do make references about others last names but if I was dealing with that person as an employee of my company, I would not do that.)

I figure that being older has caused others to realize that I have heard it before and it is not worth the hassle.

Last week, I had to sign for a delivery that was late went to their website to screen shot to show others what time it was delivered. The driver entered the name Ken Shamrock. *sigh*

Last January, I got on a roll at the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield on a old video game called Gorf. When I was done, I realized that I finished with a score that was the third highest ever achieved in that place. Excitedly, I scribbled my name and gave them my phone number just in case they had an issue.

When my daughter visited the place a few months later, she asked me if I was making a joke since the only thing that matched my last name was the "S" and told the person about it. When I visited it last Saturday after hearing others were there, I noticed the name was corrected thanks to Carrie who mentioned it and then I beat the score making the sign incorrect again.




The 50 minutes on Gorf was not all I played that Saturday:

Monday, January 1, 2018

Pandemic Legacy Season 2 part 1

January log:

Life on the three havens Hyperion, Salvation, and Orion has become a struggle. Forecasts state we will run out of supplies before the year is over due to raids by the Hollow Men. Our leaders have become missing during their annual meeting so it is up to us now.

With a farmer named Slim and a designer named Lena, we are heading out to the land to re-establish supply lines. Fortunately we got information about North America and after giving Lena information, we established a supply center in NYC and then connected to Chicago.

While supplies were being used, we got a center set up in Lagos and then we're setting things up in Tripoli when the plague hit there. Fortunately we had a med kit or else Slim and I could have been infected.

Though the centers were eventually destroyed by the Hollow Men, the population increased in the cities and London stayed the same even though the plague hit there. Lena also figured out a way to build a supply center easier.

Instructor Bill "Coop" Cooper