What Are the Odds?

This is a true story that happened just last night: my office mate Light Bright’s band had a gig in a small town that was celebrating its 175^th anniversary, and part of the festivities was a fundraiser raffle for a Vietnam Veteran memorial. The prize was a percentage of the ticket sales. Light Bright bought some tickets, as did many citizens of the town, including the mayor. During a break in the music, there was the drawing, and the mayor asked the leader of Light Bright’s band to do the honors so that it wouldn’t look as if he had fixed things if he happened to win. The band leader complied and read the ticket number, but nobody came forward. Then at the next break a member of the town council made the mayor admit that he had won, but he was too embarrassed to say anything after making that crack about fixing the drawing. The band leader replied that he wanted to make sure their band got asked back to play, so that’s why he had drawn the mayor’s name. The audience laughed, and the mayor donated his winnings back to the memorial, but Light Bright was just amazed that he had actually won. “What are the odds?” she wondered.

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