This November will be the fourth election Zach and I have spent together, but only the first election in which we've come up with an excellent way to mark this profound statement of democracy: bet on the outcome.
I thought other folks in my life would find such an idea "cool." I thought they'd look at Zach and I, and the dozen Senate races, dozen state governors' races, and fifty House of Representatives races on which we bet dinner-at-an-expensive-restaurant, and think, "These two characters are all kinds of hip!" I thought they'd especially like our tie-breaker question: By what margin will the Democratic candidate beat the Republican candidate in the Illinois 17th Congressional District?
This past weekend, we began to spread word of our brilliant wager. We started with one of Zach's friends. We ended up telling her in a movie theater, while we wated for the previews to begin. Unfortunately, since neither Zach nor I have any tact, we ended up telling her quite loudly, and half the theater heard us as well. After she, and half the theater, finished wiping the tears of laughter from her (and their) eyes, I realized that I'm way too naïve for this planet.
I told Zach that, when he's buying me dinner-at-the-expensive-restaurant, we shouldn't tell the waiter why we're there.
Posted by James at October 26, 2006 08:32 PM