Tomorrow’s date is 7/7/07. If you believe in lucky 7’s (the influence of which we’ve written about before), it’s a good day. During a recent trip to Las Vegas, I was told by one casino executive that never in the history of Vegas have the hotels been booked so far in advance as they are for tomorrow. I predict that the New York Times wedding page will be pretty full this Sunday — although, are the people who post their wedding announcements in the Times really the type to believe in luck?
Search This Blog
- Previous Post:The FREAKest Links: Smaller Homes, Free Burritos, and the Price of Death Edition
- Next Post:And Today Is…
FREAK Shots:
About Freakonomics
Stephen J. Dubner is an author and journalist who lives in New York City.
Steven D. Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
Their book Freakonomics has sold 3 million copies worldwide. This blog, begun in 2005, is meant to keep the conversation going. Recurring guest bloggers include Ian Ayres, Jessica Hagy, Daniel Hamermesh, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Justin Wolfers.
Annika Mengisen is the site editor.
Comment of the Moment
Naked Self-Promotion
Dubner was first published at age 11 in Highlights magazine -- which, in honor of its 60th anniversary, has just recognized him as a “Highlights Kid” who went on to become a professional writer, as Dubner puts it: "for better or worse."
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Archive
Recent Posts
November 20
(0 comments)
Jenkem: Bringing the Levitt Family Together
I often get emails from blog readers asking me to shed light on some issue that, in the mind of the email writer, is a pressing social or economic issue. Sometimes it is a big issue like immigration or the financial crisis. More often it is something less mainstream, like election fraud or an unusual [...]
November 20
(0 comments)
Freddie Mac and Cheese
It’s not an entire film (and it’s not in French), but two more readers, Talya and Pavle, have sent in a video of their song “Fannie Mae Eat Freddie Mac and Cheese,” which uses “freakonomics” as a sort of mantra. We like.
November 19
(49 comments)
What Would You Do in the Worst Case? A Freakonomics Quorum
Photo: Jamesfischer
These are the economic times that try men’s souls, and women’s too. In the past few months, a lot of people have seen their net worth fall substantially, and I’m sure more than a few have contemplated what would happen if they lost everything.
So we asked a group of people — Nick Mills, [...]
November 19
(29 comments)
FREAK Shots: Who Are You Calling Third-World?
Blog reader Nick Turner sent along this photo of a Body Shop ad in San Francisco:
Photo: Nick Turner
He was surprised that the ad guarantees fair-labor conditions for workers in Italy:
I thought fair-trade protections were for third-world workers. I
wonder how the Italians feel about this designation.
The ad didn’t outright call Italy third-world; but if it had, [...]
November 19
(156 comments)
Eric Oliver on the “Bigot Belt”
Eric Oliver is a colleague of mine at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the absolutely fantastic book Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic.
He has some new and interesting insights on the “Bigot Belt,” which he has generously written up for the Freakonomics blog.
The Bigot Belt
By Eric Oliver
A [...]
Stuff We Weren't Paid to Endorse
1. Go to Hulu.com. 2. Choose Arrested Development. 3. Start with Season 1 and then watch every episode of all three seasons. 4. You can thank me later. (SJD)
I can scarcely tell a scarlet tanager from Scarlett O’Hara, but The Life of the Skies had me transfixed from the first page. Jonathan Rosen -- who happens to be a friend of mine -- writes with astounding insight, wit, and compassion. The story he tells here is the best kind of odyssey, an outward journey that ends up highlighting the beauty and daring that live inside of us. Here's a Times review of the book, and here's an earlier blog post about the book and the power of suggestion. (SJD)
Even if you don’t have a son fighting in Iraq, even if you don’t read poetry, even if you think you are immune to the power of a mother’s lament – pick up The Warrior and read it right away. Fran Richey has written some of the most powerful stories I’ve ever encountered. It is obvious that her life was changed by living these poems; yours may well be changed by reading them. (SJD)
From the Opinion Blogs
Necessary Steps
Inching Along the Edge of the World
In his last walk of the series, the author manages to avoid stepping out into thin air.
Abstract City
New York Cheat Sheets
All New Yorkers develop tricks that allow them to stay ahead of the pack in daily life. Here I offer some of mine in a couple of handy charts.
Feeds
19 Comments
I seem to remember that some state lotteries were canceled on 7/7/77, because if that number actually came up it would have bankrupt the state. Must have been some sort of pick-your-own with a guaranteed prize.
— wk633Re: The wedding thing
There have been several articles locally (Nashville, TN) about many Christians who are getting married on 07/07.07 because it represents some sort of biblical covenant, so the NY Times announcements may be more reflective of the biblical significance than of “lucky #7.”
Terri
— Terri.BargerI was married on 7/7, but not because of the significance of the 7, but rather because it is a “romantic day” to be married as it is the Japanese Holiday of Tanabata (Star Festival).
I’m happily divorced now, so maybe I will go Vegas after all.
— TheBigDuck@wk633: were there state lotteries in 1977? And the lotteries just pay a portion of what they take in, the state doesn’t pay it.
I have a Lucky Seven Quiz running tomorrow. Play early and play often.
— goinglikesixtyI’m betting that tomorrow miracles happen every 20 seconds and disasters happen at the regular rate. Say every 20 seconds? Yep, going to be a special day.
— egretmanI’m betting that tomorrow is my mom’s birthday.
— discordianany takers?
I feel lucky to be the seventh commenter in this thread. It seems like a lot of people are in a betting mood. This reminds me of the “Limits to Growth” issued by the Club of Rome in the early ’70’s that was challenged with a bet by another expert. The predictions did not happen but the winner of the bet was not able to collect since the proponent of the idea died early. Similar calls are being made now and the stakes are getting higher. I hope that someone collects the winning this time.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2007/06/global_warming_bet/
LLP
— LLPCorrection:
Sorry to make a mistake in my earlier post. After some research I found the following:
he Club of Rome’s mistakes have not tarnished its confidence. It more recently issued to wide acclaim “Beyond the Limits”, a book that essentially said: although we were too pessimistic about the future before, we remain equally pessimistic about the future today. But environmentalists have been a little more circumspect since 1990 about predicting the exhaustion of minerals. That year, a much-feted environmentalist called Paul Ehrlich, whose words will prove an inexhaustible (though not infinite: there is a difference) reserve of misprediction for this article, sent an economist called Julian Simon a cheque for $570.07 in settlement of a wager.
Source:
http://www.ecoglobe.org/nz/sustain/econ1010.htm
— LLPIf you think 777 is bad… wait till 888 (Eight, in Chinese, sounds similar to riches) comes along and the entire Chinese population rushes to the casinos!
— jclAn alternative reason for why the hotels are so booked is because this is the World Series Of Poker Main Event. Biggest poker tournament of the year!
— ehHey what happened to the 1800 betting places?? You big buster, I’m going to stir your town!!
.lermit (faithful bet)
— lermitI don’t understand how the triple sevens can have anything to do with biblical covenants, or why its lucky but I’m not a gambler. On a different note I wonder how many people are trying to get pregnant today.
— hyrumbergthank you.
— mjsohbetI predict that the New York Times wedding page will be pretty full this Sunday — although, are the people who post their wedding announcements in the Times really the type to believe in luck?
Gothamist has a weekly roundup of the Times’ wedding announcements.
— prosaIf you think 777 is bad… wait till 888 (Eight, in Chinese, sounds similar to riches)
Thanks
http://reliablehosting.ws/
— asanka123Of course, if you live in the UK, 7/7 signifies the date on which more than fifty people died in a series of bombings on public transport in London.
Have a care, guys and gals, have a care…
— Luke Collinsthis post makes no sense- the world ended on 6/6/06
— frankendufRe believing in luck: While wealth and superstitiousness are almost certainly negatively correlated, it isn’t *that* strong a correlation. There’s plenty of counterexamples willing to do things like get married on a specific date because the digits in the date form a nifty pattern.
— Alsadiuseh - is it possible the poker tournament was scheduled for 7/7/7 because of the “lucky” element for marketing purposes?
After all - 7-7-7 evokes images of a slot machine.
— Ike Pigott