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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Fun with Math

Emily and I are enjoying a nice evening at home, watching Last Holiday. It's a tolerable movie, starring Queen Latifah and L.L. Cool J.

We've seen it before, more than once, and we pretty much watch it just because I have a little bit of a crush on Queen Latifah and she has a huge crush on L.L. Cool J.

Something has always bothered me about it, though: the roulette table. At one point Queen Latifah's "dying from a mysterious illness and blowing all of her cash on an insane trip" character attends a charity casino night and plays some roulette. She bets on black 17, and wins. She lets her winnings ride and wins again. She lets her winnings ride a third time and wins yet again. She then cashes in her chips and one of her companions does the conversion for her: "That's about a hundred thousand dollars!"

Pretty impressive, right? Not bad for five minutes at the roulette table.

But the math doesn't add up, not unless Queen Latifah is playing at a particularly low-limit roulette table at a charity auction with her rich companions.

Because roulette usually pays 35:1 on straight numbers, like black 17. So if she has a hundred thousand dollars after her third win, she was letting $2857.14 ride. If she had $2857.14 after her second win, she was letting $81.63 ride. And if she had $81.63 after her first win, then she bet a mere $2.33 initially.

Who is going to go into a charity casino night in a ridiculously posh resort with fancy companions and then bet two dollars? It doesn't add up.

But Queen Latifah can be forgiven a lot of things.

Do you know what this is? This is a filler post, just to kick the O'Reilly video down a page. I'd rather be writing about my crush on Queen Latifah.

11 comments:

The Microblogologist said...

Politics suck, I'd rather be reading about your crush on Queen Latifah ;).

Natalie said...

wow...you're good. that was some filler alright!

MereCat said...

I love Queen Latifah. Even as filler.

Kyddryn said...

Queen Latifah is magnificent, isn't she? Not that I have a girl crush on her or anything. Nope. not me.

Good filler.

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

Cindy and Co. said...

I love Queen Latifah. Heck who doesn't? She almost saved Chicago and I have actually watched Living Single more that once.....God I need to turn off the TV....

Anonymous said...

Couple things:

1) they say "about" a hundred thousand dollars, not exactly

and

2) Queen latifah? Seriously?!

Backpacking Dad said...

the microbiologist: I'm thinking about doing a whole ode to the Queen.

natalie: aw :} Flattery, as they say, will get you everywhere.

merecat: Me. Too.

kyddryn: a girl crush on my Queen is totally acceptable.

cindy and co: you and me both

anna: I love that you know the movie well enough to correct me :} But yes, they do say "about", but still that doesn't change how meager the original bet is. It's not going to push it up over the $3 range. And yes. Seriously. Queen Latifah :}

for a different kind of girl said...

Mmmm...filler is nougaty!

Frogs in my formula said...

Nice bait and switch! I tried the same thing with a post I wrote about a dead guinea pig (can't figure out why it wasn't a big hit). Here's to filler posts...

Claire said...

We own and love that movie. And, dude? It's a movie, a break from reality. So, don't sweat the 100K. 'K? :-)

Anonymous said...

You have too much time on your hands.

LOVE this movie.