Law Of Large Numbers

First of all, there's something new at the poetry site: The Family.

As an advanced-degreed statistician, I am aware of the concept of randomness. I understand how the concept is used or misused. I see how it is ignored - for example, the entire industry of astrology is built upon the assignation of pattern to what is essentially a patternless phenomenon (human life).

Then there are times when I think what appears random really has a pattern. Or, if it does, does it really matter? Those last two sentences almost rhymed.

This past weekend was a normal one, for the most part. But if you took a series of "snapshots" (mental or physical) of moments during the weekend and laid them out end-to-end on an unmade bed (or perhaps viewed them with a slide projector), this is what you'd find:

Turn It On Again and Abacab by Genesis are great songs.
Root beer is a color.
Glass bottles of Perrier are volatile.
The "window booth."
Milk sells blue cakes.
A clothing store can give you cupcakes.
Patience isn't necessary.
Vices are mostly interesting in that they are vices.
Rosemary and goat cheese go well together.
There is such a thing as too much Gatorade rain.
Semisonic should have been as big as The Beatles.
Numbered, mounted.
I didn't finish a crossword puzzle all weekend and I was okay with it.
My unrelaxing vacation starts soon.
Sometimes I get so tired I can't stay awake.
Other times I'm not so tired.
Someone I know was on a reality show that aired Friday.
Snoop Dogg was on Monk.
It's too hot here.
What's the weather like in Seattle?
69 and cloudy.
How about Minneapolis?
83 and sunny?
Los Angeles?
86 and sunny bit it rained yesterday for 30 seconds.
What is this list all about?

It's about nothing, you see. Events and situations are just sometimes temporally related. Like that Elvis Costello song The Only Flame In Town? In my mind, it triggers the smacking of a half-consumed Wendy's Frosty against a suburban Pennsylvania mailbox, on a street that's neither street nor road nor avenue nor highway... on a street that's a "pike."

Or it's about the way Garbage's Only Happy When It Rains reminds me of two hours ago when I thought of the song for the first time in years and it never reminded me of anything ever before. Now it reminds me of my blog. It's endless.

If you really want to know what this is (and I am) about, go to Wikipedia for an explanation of the Law of Large Numbers. Which reminds me of downtown Minneapolis. Winter of 1985-86. They tore it all down. Now it's a Target.