Happy Halloween! A rather subdued Halloween this year as the world is already terrifying enough as it is, and especially if a certain political candidate wins in Tuesday's election (according to all the Youtube ads running nowadays). The betting markets have staked a large lead for the challenger Joe Biden, and with good reason: apparently many Americans have taken the early voting process seriously, as more than half of the amount of voters in 2016 have already voted, meaning a lot of votes are already in, and the polls are reflecting people's choices likely AFTER they have already submitted their ballot, meaning no surprise not even over the weekend can make much of a difference. Prognosticators are projecting about a 90% chance that Biden wins versus a measly 10% for Trump, and Five Thirty Eight broke it down like this: Trump needs to win all the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Florida. These are the closest 5 battleground states all around 50-50, so Trump's chances are like flipping a coin and landing on heads 5 consecutive times (normally around 4%): Not very good odds at all. Ohio used to be the ultimate swing state during the early 2000's, but now it's solidly red, but other Midwestern states like Wisconsin and Michigan seem like they're going blue this year, as is Virginia. Even Texas's 38 electoral college votes is leaning towards going blue, although unlikely this year.
Election season is a good time to catch up on geography in the US, with the number of electoral college votes belying the population density and trends in various states. North Carolina is at a solid 15 electoral votes, but Georgia actually has a higher population with 16 votes (didn't know that!) Pennsylvania and Illinois are at 20 apiece, which is kind of huge for Democrats because it gives them the 1st (California= 55), 3rd (New York = 29), and both IL, and PA states tied for 5th. (FL has 29).
When I was a kid, I loved looking at maps, especially on long road trips throughout America. Each little town seemed nice even passing through, but the big capitalized metropolises that we passed through were the big kahuna, sometimes even worthy of stopping in and exploring through. It's a shame the only class I didn't choose to take Geography, probably because it wasn't an Honors or AP course, and I didn't want to lower my GPA on a non-honors course in a quest to become valedictorian (a trivial pursuit now that I think about it, but one I was pretty obsessed with in high school). I also regret not participating in Scholastic Bowl, an after-school activity that was essentially the Trivia team, where I showed up once to answer "Battle of Saratoga" due to an obsession with the American Revolution and Civil War as a child, but was stumped afterwards. I knew the 50 states and capitals by heart! I had a book listing all of America's national parks! (there are 62 now)
I realize now that I just stopped learning geography after the U.S.; I did not extend my knowledge, for example, to world countries and capitals, as well as famous rivers of the world, a HUGE category for Jeopardy. Seriously, along with "the Dead Sea Scrolls," Botticelli, the Mekong River is a recurring character on Jeopardy that the staff goes back to over and over again. I was watching the Amazing Race, where they went to Trinidad and Tobago for the first time ever in the most recent season (filmed before the pandemic) and had to look on a map to find it surprisingly in South America, when I had always thought it was in Africa, and its capital, the Port of Spain, is not a port in Spain. Oh and there's more "stans" in the Middle East than I ever could have imagined. It's not just Pakistan, there's Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan......etc., etc.
Sometimes I wish I had my last 10 or 15 years back again, and one of the things I would want it back for is just to go into a deep learning zone like James Holzhauer did to become one of the most famous Jeopardy champions ever. I also found out he's from Naperville, IL, attended the University of Illinois (right before I did, actually we may have intersected), and is a sports bettor. And he spent like 6 years solely studying trivia as his full time job, well I guess also as a "pro sports bettor." But then I realize my last 10 years haven't been so bad.....I learned a bunch of languages and made a decent amount of money too. I did waste a bunch of time.....but it didn't turn out so bad after all. Now I just gotta look up these new national parks established recently (Cuyahoga Dunes in Ohio and White Sands in New Mexico).
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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