Multiple update, in which DEK relives his formative years.

Powerball mania strikes Pennsylvania
Millions of mathematically stupid rejoice.

We now have Powerball in Pennsylvania. Yippee. My disdain for the Pennsylvania Lottery continues, since this only continues their effort to separate us from our money. Dave Barry tackled the PA Lottery's cynical benefitting of Older Pennsylvanians with his column "Mrs. Beazley Died for Our Sins," but it's even worse than that. First in the 1970's, they busted Tony Grosso, who was the numbers king of Pennsylvania. Within a year of his arrest and conviction, the Daily Number was unveiled. Naturally, the state didn't give as good a payoff at Tony. Then of course they had the 666 scandal, made into the awful John Travolta movie Lucky Numbers. Key things to note about this. The real version of the John Travolta character was not a Harrisburg weatherman, but the Pittsburgh host of Bowling for Dollars. And they would have gotten away with fixing the daily number, by weighting down all the other ping pong balls with white paint, had THEY REMEMBERED TO REMOVE THE WEIGHTED BALLS, WHEN IT CAME UP 666 THE NEXT DAY!!!
Add to this, when the scandal was breaking, Channel 2 brought in a special expert on fixing lotteries to give insight. You guessed it... Tony Grosso. (Those of you who have heard this rant before, remember, I have to get it out of my system on occasion, and it's still such a fundamental part of my early development. Nothing like growing up young and cynical.)

Fun quote from one of the Powerball shills, of which I'm mangling the words but not how they said it: "70% of our players use quick pick, AND 70% of our quick picks are from players."
and 90% percent of players thought that was profound.

Some jokers on Pittsburgh sports radio mentioned that this is the end of the West Virginia economy, because they will have no more people driving in from other states for Powerball tickets

Al Julius dead
This will make no sense to anyone who wasn't native to Pittsburgh in the 1980's. But if you were there, you would remember Al Julius delivering commentary every weeknight at 6:45. A man who was a thorn in the side of most every politician. There won't be another one again, TV would demand he be paired with a blond conservabot, for more fireworks, but that wouldn't have worked with Al. Al was the master of the Rasputin stare, with the end of every commentary fading to black, and for those next ten seconds, the dark screen let you put your own opinion on trial. The papers seem to be eulogizing him as a man speaking up for the common man, I never saw it that way. He was more speaking to the common man, asking him to push beyond their own expectations of the world. Agree or disagree, but at least think about how you reached your conclusion.
The thing that everyone will remember him for is the Julius' Turkeys drive, which has given a good Thanksgiving meal to thousands who couldn't afford it. But the moment I'm going to remember is the one year he pointed out the hypocrisy of Western Pennsylvania elections, where the incumbents were basically given jobs for life. He called the people out, If there was dissatisfaction with their leaders, they should vote them out. But then he bet that the people wouldn't care enough, and if they didn't he eat his copy of his commentary. Well, one fell. And so on Wednesday, November 5, or thereabouts, he sat there with a plate, fork, knife, a bottle of ketchup, and that speech. I give him credit for that on so many levels, calling out his own party, challenging the people to action, and then owning up to his own hubris.

SupHer Bowl mania sweeping Pittsburgh.
Friday afternoon I caught Tim Benz on local ESPNRadio giving tickets away to the SupHer Bowl, to be played at a high school stadium in suburban Pittsburgh the last weekend of July. Now given the amusing time Craig, Mike and co. had at a NWFL game earlier this month, should I forward the copy of their account to Tim Benz?

How many games is sufficient?
S'anyway, teams were volunteering their year-end records on hsquizbowl.org, and the thought struck me. If the top teams today are getting 150-200 games a year, are you going to have any shot at getting them to come to your tournament, if they don't already come? This struck me when I realized that my high school career record was 15-1. Note that was my CAREER record, not my season record, not a tournament record. We have teams that are only getting 20 matches a year. These are the ones that we can get to grow the circuit. The ones that are getting 100+ games, you'll get them or you won't, but don't expect to get them. They have the budget to do anything they want, don't expect them to do what you want.