You may recall my post and follow-up a little while back about a poll that showed that less than 3% of Oklahoman secondary school kids would pass a citizenship test - and only 23% knew that George Washington was the first President. That poll was done by Strategic Vision (which has been accused of right-wing bias) and sponsored by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). The numbers seemed rather not credible - statistician Nate Silver accused them of just making up numbers. Also, the follow-up post in this lj showed (in a self-reporting poll) that 90% of my lj readers got 9 or 10 correct).

Well... Oklahoma state representative Ed Cannady (rep'ing OK's 15 house district) has done what I wanted to do - recreate the poll with the same questions, using secondary school kids from his own district.

He found that they were quite a bit smarter than the Strategic Vision/OCPA poll lead us to believe. He polled all the seniors (inc. the special ed kids) in the 10 schools in his district (325 kids in all). The average score was 7.8 right out of 10, and 98% of them knew that Washington was the first President.



The lack of intellectual honesty on the part of Strategic Vision really gets me - did they just make up numbers? Seems like it. The way that Hannity and Friends just make up numbers about how many people show up for tea party demos. Or birthers just make up "facts" about the lack of documentation of Obama's birth certificate. OK, I'll stop there.

Now that it's November, our office thermostat is set lower - some might say, chilly, or even, perhaps, freezing.

Here in Boston I joked with a co-worker, P---, a Red Sox fan, that maybe I'll start wearing a jacket in the office - maybe a Yankees jacket. She threw a rubber ball at me.

Today, I had a brilliant idea on the way to work. I asked her if she'd be interested in the following bet:
If the Red Sox win the World Series next year, I will humiliate myself, drag myself to a store and buy myself a Red Sox baseball cap and wear it for a week. If the Yankees win, then she has to do the same - with a Yankees cap, of course.

She hemmed and hawwed - can we wait until spring training and see how they do? she asked. I said, Don't you believe in your team? Don't you think they can win? That's loser talk!

She still demured.

Then I asked R--- at work, also a fervent Sox fan. He also refused the bet.

Sox fans, where is your faith?

432 to 425. I won't say who won, but I will say Frank ended up with the Scrabble board playfully dumped in his lap.

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Current Location: US, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Brookline, Kent St, 180

 If things go according to schedule, there should be a TAFF auction at Windycon this weekend (I meant to send Anne some things, but plum forgot - so those will go to... a TAFF auction at Philcon.

Donated items for the Philcon TAFF auction so far include:

An Astroboy clock!
An Ultraman blaring alarm clock!
Romulan Bird of Prey (old style, from "Balance of Terror") with blinking lights and sounds!
Fossil ammonite!
WWII army helmet!
A license plate that declares "May the Schwartz Be With You" (from a car dealer named Schwartz)
The souped-up RoboRaptor!
A Cyberman (from Dr. Who)!
Misc. DVDs and VHS (!) tapes!
A Lost in Space lunchbox!
A Tuckerization from Lawrence M. Schoen (A Tuckerization is where the author names a character after YOU!)!

Who knows what other random things will show up in my mailbox before they get carted off to Philcon for the auction.

In addition, we're still scheduled to start the online auctions for various Tuckerizations (from Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, David Brin, Elizabeth Bear, Nalo Hopkinson, Julie Czerneda, and Mary Robinette Kowal, and a whole slew of other awesome writers) the day after Thanksgiving!  That same day we'll start online auctions for first editions of "1984" and "Hiroshima"!

If anyone out there wants to donate anything, or any authors reading this want to donate a Tuckerization, send me an email at FWu@FrankWu.com !!!!!

Frank Wu completes the Roboraptor T-1000 for the TAFF auction. Meanwhile, a vicious beast yearns for vengeance.

Eight-year-old Frank Wu explains the Trans-atlantic fan fund in his trademark, uh, exuberant style. The dinosaur has a British accent for some reason.

 Well, it's Saturday, which means Frank is coming up with some ungodly scheme with our puppy. Here he is pitting our Roboraptor against our Bichon. Who will win? Probably not the neighbors listening to his barking. 


Incidentally, this is the earlier model, the RoboRaptor T-101. Frank spent most of the morning adding some special modification of his own - like gluing a second dinosaur on top and adding spikes - making it the RoboRaptor T-1000! His next step is to paint it in psychedelic colors. You can bid for the Roboraptor at the Philcon TAFF auction, where it will be auctioned off to send a deserving sci-fi fan to bonny old England! (Hopefully Frank.)

The lucky winner can pit the RoboRaptor T-1000 against their own pets! 

Bri

 Random poll of the day, inspired by last post:

Food questions (and controls!)

Poll #1481823 Foodery
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 53

Dried octopus!!!!

Mochi ice cream!!!!

Spicy tuna sushi!

Hot pastrami sandwich!

Anchovies!!!!

Fried Calamari

1000 year egg

Water + Lemon Juice + salt

Haggis

Blutwurst

Lutefisk

Turkey sandwich

McDonald's Big and Tasty hamburger

Gross. Frank wants to buy this at the Japaneese food store.

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Current Location: US, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Brookline, Davis Ave, 198

 The agony of defeat.
From the Cask & Flagon, America's #2 Baseball Bar, according to ESPN voters, across the street from Fenway the night the Yankees win the World Series:




I knew we were moving to enemy territory when we came to Boston, but I never quite knew how ugly and relentless the actual hatred of the Yankees were here.

I asked locals the other day if Boston had a city slogan - the way that New York has "I love New York" or Virginia has "Virginia Is for Lovers."  They couldn't think of one - nothing like, "Boston - come for the lobster, stay for the beans."  Or: "Boston - You can learn everything at MIT, if you don't jump off the dome first."  Nope, no slogan.  Except maybe, "Yankees suck!"

We went to the Cask & Flagon last night to watch the Yankees win - but we'd also gone there Monday, when the Yanks had their first chance to clinch - and blew it.  The Boston fan would spontaneously burst out into cheering "Yankees suck!  Yankees suck!" at random times.  (They didn't come to see the Phillies win - they came to see the Yankees lose.)  But... it's also a cheer you hear at Boston at weird times.  Paul at work said he heard them chanting "Yankees suck!  Yankees suck!" at New England Patriots games.  I suppose this kind of makes sense, as, no matter how long the teams exist, the Yankees will never ever beat the Patriots.  But we also hear crowds cheering "Yankees suck! Yankees suck!" randomly on the T, on the street.  Whah? 

When a Yankees fan comes to Fenway, all sorts of insult and taunting are cast upon him from Red Sox fans.  When a Red Sox fan comes to Yankee stadium, there's more respect - one warrior to another.  

Boston fans remind me of some sort of tiny yip dog trying to get the attention of a bigger dog who doesn't really care:



Maybe it has to do with the fact that Boston would need to win the World Series every year for the next TWO DECADES to catch up to the Yankees.