Okay! 124 Raffle tickets were sold, and every ticket has been assigned a random number between 1 and 248.
So how do we want to choose the winner? Any thoughts from you clever folks out there?
Oh, and here’s the new Patron block that Quiltingfool just finished.
(Block orders will start on a different thread this weekend, but I was sure you guys would want to see this!)
MattF
There’s an array of lava lamps that’s used to generate random numbers…
debit
Siri, pick a number between 1 and 248.
bbleh
So how do we want to choose the winner? Any thoughts from you clever folks out there?
I’d recommend against any physical method like pulling numbered balls from a box or rolling dice; those usually have biases, as, eg, a retrospective analysis of the Vietnam draft lottery showed. And I wouldn’t use a computer to generate a “random” number — those are actually “pseudorandom” and depend on whatever the “seed” is.
Here’s one that might be pretty random: take the last two (or three or whatever) closing Dow Jones indices (including decimals), discard the decimals, add them up, chop off all but the last four digits from the result, divide the resulting 4-digit number by 40 and discard any fraction (decimal) from the result, and if the answer isn’t one of your ticket numbers, do it again using the preceding two (or whatever).
Sure Lurkalot
Many online random number generators where you put a range and press a button.
Good luck to everyone!
ETA bbleh doesn’t like my idea but I like his/hers/theirs
Cgerrib
I’m not in the drawing but I say KISS applies – online random number generator is good enough.
Van Buren
I don’t have an exact plan, but I think a puppy should be involved somehow.
HumboldtBlue
@bbleh:
Sweet mother of a cross stitch, no one told me there was gonna be some fucking algebra!
Baud
I don’t think it can be done.
WaterGirl
We could find an old John Cole post with 248 comments, and ask someone to read them all and pick their favorite.
WaterGirl
@Baud: No winner?
Omnes Omnibus
The answer is 42.
WaterGirl
I generated the random numbers between 1 and 248 with my spreadsheet program. i could make a new spreadsheet and take the first number it gives me that matches one of the ticket numbers.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: it’s always 42!
Andrya
If you have a computer with Excel use “=randbetween(1,248)”. I’d volunteer to do that for you except I’m not exactly disinterested (.. salivates slightly over picture of quilt….).
Or, if you have access to a TI-84 graphing calculator press the “math” key, then right arrow to “PRB”, then down arrow to randInt. Once in randInt, enter 1,248,1, then close parenthesis, then press “enter”.
Or you can use this online random number generator: link.
WaterGirl
@Andrya:
I did that, that’s how I assigned ticket numbers.
It just seems so anticlimactic to make a spreadsheet with one row and enter the formula. :-)
WaterGirl
Maybe I should ask John Cole to pick a number between 1 and 248?
BeautifulPlumage
Use an online generator but make it dramatic and festive and video the moment the generator is activated? Maybe put the quilt image is the backdrop to the generator window, have a festive beverage on the side, do a drumroll on the desktop?
Any way you do the drawing will work for this hopeful entrant!
BeautifulPlumage
@bbleh: I think you mean convoluted instead of random : )
Baud
You could do a poll on which number to choose.
bbleh
Well, if you’re going to use some computer thing like Excel’s RAND function, at least generate a number between 00001 and 99999 and take the the 3 middle digits. I’d still suspect it, but at least less so. And again, if it don’t work, do it again ’til it does.
eachother
@bbleh: Random to my eyes. Using no dangerous darts.
BeautifulPlumage
(comment moved to correct post)
eachother
Put the numbers on Baud’s pole. Turn on an appropriate fan. Last pole number, against the wind, wins.
Baud
@eachother:
My pole has prior commitments.
eachother
@Baud: Find an octopus. Skilled win pickers.
sab
@BeautifulPlumage: Thanks. Good idea. It doesn’t work with the fancy walker, but it would work with the (now downstairs and outdoor) walker. I think I’ll withhold the idea for a day or so because I don’t want the fancy walker outside on the sidewalk. That will ruin its sliders. But I think switching walkers halfway thru the bathroom door is going to get very old very soon.
Sigh. I’m not that manipulative. I told him. He wants the wheels switched and the walkers switched.
WaterGirl
Okay, so I decided to do the random number in my spreadsheet program but I thought you all should see it.
So I set up a zoom and set it to record and I added the randbetween function in the spreadsheet and it brought up the winning number.
I then went to the spreadsheet that linked names and numbers, only to realize that spreadsheet had NAMES as well as nyms, so the recording would show real names of all the raffle ticket peeps, so I have no recording to share.
The number that came up was 11.
The winner is…. drum roll … Bobby Thomson!
Starfish
Dump everyone into Wheel of Names, and make it choose and be spinny.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Rigged!
WaterGirl
Bobby Thomson can you please come to the winner’s table?
Spanky
WaterGirl
@Baud: I could show you the video so you would have to take back your unfounded accusation, but then I would have to kill you.
And we can’t have that.
WaterGirl
@Spanky: That’s his nym, not his name. :-)
BeautifulPlumage
@sab: and I thought everyone was still downstairs so I moved my comment, ha!
Yeah, her walker is very simple so it works.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Stop the steal!
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: This is going to go next to “no good deed goes unpunished” – isn’t it?
WaterGirl
@BeautifulPlumage: I guess I”m gonna have to go to find your suggestion in the previous thread.
BeautifulPlumage
@WaterGirl: congrats to Bobby Thomson! Quilting Fool is a gifted artist. Now I’m gonna go shopping for a quilt square(s)
Andrya
@eachother: If you are referring to “Paul the Octopus” who successfully predicted 12 out of 14 soccer matches, unfortunately Paul is deceased.
This has a Balloon Juice tie-in: when Paul correctly predicted that Spain would defeat Germany, Spanish/American chef Jose Andres (temporarily) removed octopus from his menus. Andres, of course, founded World Central Kitchen, which is doing heroic work in Ukraine and is one of the beneficiaries of the BJ “help Ukraine” fund.
However, I hate to say it, but I think Paul’s caretakers were manipulating his predictions. (I have my statistics students discuss the pros and cons of Paul’s claimed abilities.)
WaterGirl
Thanks to all the raffle ticket peeps – $6,200 for Ukraine is a big Joe Biden deal.
eachother
Nice quilt.
Glad I had a chance.
emrys
Sad 😿 I didn’t win but kudos to Watergirl for all the work you put into this.
zhena gogolia
Congratulations to Bobby Thomson!
WaterGirl
@emrys: There are always quilt blocks!
I suggested that Quiltingfool make some placemats. Great idea? Terrible idea?
WaterGirl
@emrys: Thank you!
If only we could all win. We’ll work on that next, right after we win in November.
eachother
@Andrya: The tale of the tentacles.
I was a sucker. But my chances were 8 to one.
Octopus are on my way cool to see in the sea list.
sab
@Andrya: My husband thinks octopuses ( octopodes?) are space aliens and he deeply admires them.
jnfr
@MattF:
I like the Lava Lamps.
CapnMubbers
Is that Tunch, second block down on the left?
Uncle Cosmo
For some reason this calls to mind the old joke about how to tell a mathematician from a physicist from an engineer.
It’s beautifully simple: Ask the subject to prove that all odd numbers are prime.
A mathematician will say, ” One, three, five, seven – Proof by induction!”
A physicist will say, “One, three, five, seven – so far so good – nine…mmm, no – eleven, thirteen – Proof within experimental error!
An engineer will say, “Uh, what’s a prime?”
HumboldtBlue
@Spanky:
Actually, he’s currently manager of the Phillies.
Quiltingfool
It’s time for the Cats and Sunflowers quilt to travel to a new home! Congratulations to Bobby Thomson! Thank you to everyone here for your generous donations!
I’m working on blocks now. I’ve made 4 Patron blocks in the past two days, and started on two Stacked Cats, can’t remember the block number. Watergirl will let you know how she wants this to proceed, and let me know the blocks people want.
Boy, if I didn’t have to do any house chores or cooking, I could crank those blocks out fast! Alas, my better half kind of likes a hot dinner, clean clothes and a “relatively” tidy house! (Our 22 year anniversary was today – we both kind of forgot about it – he works long hours and I get obsessed about sewing). Anyone observing my floors can tell what I do most of the day – I track bits of thread all over the place, lol!
Ruckus
@Quiltingfool:
“I track bits of thread all over the place, lol!”
But you track them very well indeed…..
Bobby Thomson
Holy crap!
I need to think about next steps.
WaterGirl
@Bobby Thomson: Hi there! I will send you an email – is your BJ email a working email account?
Congratulations!
P.S. You got here so late that no one was here to congratulation you!