Tag Archive: 2011


Historic Day at the Track

Filed Under: Stories by Reader submission — 5 Comments
January 17, 2012

(Submitted by reader Dave R)

On Sunday, 9/11/2011, the first three horse races at Belmont Park in New York City ended with the horses numbered 9, 1, and 1 winning the races, respectively. A spokesperson said the odds must be a million to one against that happening. I’m not sure how many horses were in each race so I can’t figure the exact odds, but it certainly isn’t million to one against. If there were 10 horses in each race the odds of that particular combination would be 1 in 1000.

However so many people bet on that exact 3-pick due to it being the date, a $2 bet only paid off $18, or 9:1.

[EDITOR: While the odds of that combination are 1 in 1000, I imagine the odds of it occurring on that particular day drive it up quite a bit. Anyone wish to do some math for us?]

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Busy Day for Toledo Family

Filed Under: News, Stories by Jarrett Kaufman — 1 Comment
January 4, 2012

(Link submitted by friend of the blog, Nancy Matson)

Families sometimes have strangely scheduled and often inconvenient birthdays. Sometimes people are born too close to a major gift-giving holiday, increasing the financial strain and reducing the flow of gifts. Others end up with family members closely clustered together, with the same result. But in one much happier reversal of Bleak Winters, a Toledo-area family experienced something much more precise:

FOUR birthdays all on January 4th, across four generations.

That’s right, Richard Stiff’s family started off the tradition with his (now-passed) father Marshall being born on January 4th, 1924. Richard, himself was then born on the same day in 1947, his daughter Julia following the pattern in 1978, and her daughter Kourtney following up the rear (for now) in 2011.

The family claims this was entirely unplanned timing and seems to enjoy the family connection, with various family traditions each year to celebrate the connection. Their biggest challenge appears to be simply the difficulty in finding appropriate birthday activities in the chilly month of January.

[SOURCE: Toledo Blade via Yahoo! News]

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