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Sitting on my balcony, rehearsing “Eilt, ihr angfochtnen Seelen” for next week, and this drunk guy stumbles into the courtyard.

“Can I come through here?”
“Umm, you can come in and then go out again.”
“How do I get out?”
“Same way you came in.”
“Oh, right. Dude, you have a great singing voice.”
“Thanks.”
“I go back that way?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“You can go either left or right.”
“Cool. Thanks. You have a great singing voice.”
“Thanks.”

He wanders back up the drive.

“Which way do I go?”
“Either left or right.”
“Yeah. Thanks. You can sing really good.”
“Thanks.”

And then he stumbles off into the night.

Come See my Latest Show
The Rice Light Opera Society presents

Iolanthe, or, the Peer and the Peri

by William S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan
Directed by Jonathan Ichikawa
[I’m playing the Lord Chancellor]

Thursday, March 20, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, March 21, 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 22, 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 27, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, March 28, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 29, 8:00 p.m.

For directions, reservations, and more information, go to

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rlos/iolanthe.htm

Hope to see you there!

Who’s the bigger sucker, a lottery player or a keno player?
Also while in Vegas, Greg and I were arguing over the relarive merits (or lack thereof) of playing keno and the lottery. There is an excellent website by Dr. Math that has all kinds of goodies on math in everyday life situations. The one dealing with combinations and permutations is partiuclarly relevant for this question. Both keno and regular
lotteries are examples of combinations, where the order does not matter (Powerball is a mix of combinations and permutations, since the powerball order does
matter). The formula is C(n,k)=n!/(k!(n-k)!), where n is the number of objects to choose from, and k is number chosen. For a lottery where you pick 6 numbers
out of 54, there are 54!/(6!(54-6)!) possible combinations, which is 54*53*53*51*50*49/(6*5*4*3*2), or a 1 in 25,827,165 chance of getting all six. In Keno,
picking 20 out of 80, there are 80!/(20!(80-20)!) combinations, which is 80*79*…*62*61/(20*19*…*2*1), or 3.535316142212174e+18. That’s more than 3.5
quintillion to 1! That’s how they make the buffets so cheap!

Top Sayings of 1987
While in Vegas this past weekend, I kept trying to remember the 5 phrases nominated for Top Saying of 1987, as determined by Late Night with David Letterman. I
could only remember four. Finally dug them up:


  1. Oh, Eleanor, guess who passed another stone?
  2. It’s funny — I hate the itching, but I don’t mind the swelling.
  3. And…it’s moist!
  4. I just escaped from a state institution.
  5. Nice tie, bonehead!

FYI, #2 was the winner, and #1 was the one I couldn’t recall.