Today's Topics:
Fun fact to know and tell
More disappearing body parts
the Pope is a slack-sucking death alien
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Date: Wed, 07 Nov 90 12:36:58 EST
From: dryfoo@athena.mit.edu
Subject: Fun fact to know and tell
To: Steve Strassmann <straz@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
} Date: Wed, 7 Nov 90 10:24:12 EST
} From: Steve Strassmann <straz@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
} To: subg-amt@media-lab.media.mit.edu, dryfoo@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
} Subject: stop me before I kill again
}
} There's a pretty big ad in the Tech:
}
} Come hear the truth about
} WITCHCRAFT
} CHILD SACRIFICE
} ABORTION
} HOMOSEXUALITY
} WICKEDNESS
}
} 7pm Wed, 7 November
}
} [Gee, I guess with all those 7's they'll be safe, huh?]
Back in the days before the legal state-run lotteries and number games,
bookies used to hate July 11 and November 7. The reason: besides
boxing, ballgames, and horses, there was always a lot of neighborhood
action on "The Numbers", a daily 3-digit number.
[Background: The winning number was a publicly accessible number like
the last three digits of the previous day's parimutuel handle at the
local track. The payoff was 500-to-1, not a bad percentage for the
house on a 1000-to-1 bet. And you were expected to tip the local runner
about 5% besides!]
The reason the bookies hated those dates is that EVERYBODY played
"lucky" 711 on those dates, and they went crazy trying to lay off the
bets. Odds were against having to pay off, but if it did come up, he'd
need A LOT of $$$. So he'd have to find big money sources where he
could "lay off" the incoming $$$ against a hit. (They didn't have this
problem with, say, boxing -- if all the $$ came in on The Local Favorite
