This Just In – It’s Pi Day (3.14) and I’m going to try to refrain from all the puns and bad jokes about trying to resolve the unknowable question of “What’s 22/7?”
It’s a rational question with an irrational answer. I could say it’s 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679, but that would be an incomplete answer.
My kids both enjoy math and terrible jokes. It’s a family tradition that I’m very confident will translate to the grandkids. My late father was an MIT math major and an actuary. Applied mathematics for him included going to the grocery store with my mother occasionally and arriving at the cash register with the exact total of the basket in his head.
He was also the guy who would actually have an answer when someone at a cocktail party would casually inquire “What are the odds?”
In the Empire Strikes Back, we see Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO being pursued by Imperial TIE fighters. In an effort to lose the enemy fighters, Solo takes his ship into an asteroid field. C-3PO begins telling Solo that the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3,750 to 1. This gives us one of Han Solo’s greatest lines: “Never tell me the odds,” he says.
In a recent interview with one of President Biden’s surrogates, I heard the echo of Han Solo. “Don’t tell me the odds, tell me the stakes.” At last, I thought … that’s the point.
In the wake of a State of the Union address that was off the charts in its effectiveness, Joe Biden will take the next month making his case to the American people that it’s a time for choosing. His record is quite clear. He’s accomplishing what he promised he would accomplish. The contrast on the policy level between his administration and his opponent could scarcely be more clear. Our republic is at stake. The rest of it can wait.
Across the next month (and especially while the 45th president is tied up in criminal court in New York) Biden will be bombarding us with advertising creating the election’s framework. This will be true in North Carolina, but not in Montana. We’re a state in this cycle that will get many visits and lots of attention.
Despite the breathless reporting that The Former Guy has some kind of approximately equal chance of being elected president again, he really doesn’t. I don’t mean to suggest that it cannot happen. I still have bruises from predictions like that in 2016.
When Carolina rolled into Durham last week, I’m guessing that Coach Davis advised his players to forget the odds of winning at Cameron. Just remember who you are as a team and what you’re doing here – playing in the greatest rivalry in sports – all sports.
For the tournament this weekend, the advice is the same. Forget the odds. Play your game. Do your best. Give it all you have and shake hands at the end.
For voters in our state, the advice is the same. Ignore national polls. Evaluate what’s right in front of you and look around in your own life. In mine, I don’t see the apocalyptic, fearful treachery described by Alabama Senator Katie Britt last week. I see soccer practices and ACC rivalries and Franklin Street flooded after a win.
Enjoy the tournament this weekend. Go Tar Heels. Here’s hoping we get at least one more chance to beat Dook!
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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