03/13/03's illustrious band:

Blue Hats and Little Green Men

Brought to you by the cosmic 8-ball.

Remember the Magic 8-Ball toy? It's shaped like the 8-ball from a pool table, and there's a little window in the side. You shake the ball, peer through the window, and read the answer to your secret question on the floating die inside. Responses include "Yes -- definitely," "All signs point to no," "Outlook not so good," "Better not tell you now," and "Try again."

I had a question on my mind but no 8-ball at hand, so I asked it of the universe at large. If the answer was yes, I asked the Big U to show me blue hats; if it was no, I should see little green men. I decided to wait until I had three of one sign or the other before considering the process complete.

Well, it's March and I live in Minnesota, so there's no shortage of hats around, and a surprising number of them are blue. I saw my three within an hour of asking my question of the universe. However, I don't consider "yes" my final answer. I think I choose the signs I did because subconsciously, I wanted the answer to be yes, so I chose a yes sign that I knew would appear with much greater frequency than the no sign. Therefore, this wasn't a fair test of the cosmic 8-ball.

So I posed my question again, and this time I want to see purple feathers for yes and unicorns for no. I asked on Tuesday and still haven't seen anything one way or the other. However, it's kind of amusing to be on the lookout for purple feathers and unicorns in my everyday life. Searching out the answer might be more fun than actually getting it.

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