Something Wicker This Way Comes

Big ol' nerdfest the past couple of days.

First, on Tuesday, I traveled down to the moderately depressing St. Paul campus of the U of M for the Minnesota State Economics Challenge. I traveled with Garret Wedan, Tirth Patel, Chris Dens, and Christian Barnett, who, incidentally, will be leaving his teaching job next year to take a position as a broker with Edward Jones. He will be missed.

Here's how Econ Challenge works: There are three divisions, Adam Smith for A.P kids, David Ricardo for big school regular track, Some Token Broad for small school regular track. Everyone takes two 15 question MC tests on their own (micro, then macro), then the whole team takes one on international/current events. Scores are added (+10 for each correct, -5 for each incorrect), and the top two teams in each division move on to the "Quiz Bowl" portion to determine the winner.

I've gotta say, this went about as well as I could have hoped. My team did rather poorly (we didn't even qualify for the Quiz Bowl), so I don't have to devote any more time to fuckin econ challenge, but I snagged the individual high scorer award for the Adam Smith Division, and, courtesy of my combined one wrong/one blank on the micro/macro tests, I am now the "Minnesota Economics Student of the Year." In this honor I join such illustrious individuals as our own Jason Houle.

Then it was off to State KB, where we had fun bumming around Craguns, posted a 98, and took a satisfactory 13th out of about 25 teams.

Best question: "What crime is the following newspaper article referencing? 'I didn't want to draw attention to it,' said the businessman from the Deseret valley, "but I..."

BUZZ

Max (actually kind of yelling, now that I think about it): Dudes, Deseret is fuckin Utah, Utah is mormons, it's fucking polygamy!

Rest of the team: Umm....okay?

Max: POLYGAMY?

Reader: That's correct.

Word On A Wing

Second oral round score: 31
Overall: 154
Ride the lightning y'all.

Great exchange in Econ today:
All-Call: Sorry for this brief interruption. Attention all varsity dance team members, you will be practicing at Franklin...(drones on)
Chris Dens: Tiiiirrth!
Tirth Patel: Hey Chris, they're talking about you!
CD: No this is you!
TP: No, pay attention, you need to go to Franklin after school to practice!
CD: I can't, I have swimming!
TP: Oh no Chris, this is much more important!


This conversation was eerily mirrored later that day when Tirth and I were both picking up some scholarship apps from Linda:
Me: (pointing to a scholarship called "Girls Going Places") Hey Tirth, look, this one's for you!
Tirth: Oh? Don't you mean that it is for you?!?
Me:(stunned into silence by Tirth's rapier-like wit)