Better Together

And so we wrap up this year’s madness with a two-way tie for first place, an unprecedented outcome for the Wine With Friends bracket.  Though Melanie and I have shared much over our near decade of friendship: a Geology class and a Pledge Class, cabs in NYC, countless meals, flights to DC, two addresses, an unrelenting love for cardigans, trashcan lid nachos, hours of laughter and a few tears as well, and, of course, that one infamous noise violation… I am happy to add one more thing to our list.

To the friend who brings over flowers when you get into an “incident” involving an 18 wheeler…

To the friend who annually offers to send out the Evite for your birthday so you don’t have to…

To the friend who knows pretty much everything about you and loves you anyway…

Congrats Mel! 

Tange and Smel - Klop's Nuptials - April 2009

Smel and Tange - After carving our names in the wall at The Chicken - Pi Phi Reunion 2007

Tange and Smel (and fly and crab) - Eating crab was not Mel's favorite part of our trip to DC - August 2008

Ray, Smel and Tange - Ready for a Mule ride - May 2009

Ode to Professor Stein

Enduring Professor Stein’s statistics class was in many ways a rite of passage at A&M.  I thoroughly enjoyed the class because the man was clearly unstable and I found his instability somewhat entertaining and, if I'm being honest, a bit endearing.  Stein used an owl puppet, Spot, to teach the class.  I empathize with his fear of speaking in front of large (or any) groups.

In honor of Professor Stein, of all that I learned in INFO 303 and of Excel which calculated all of this information for me, I present you statistics on our 2011 bracket:

Count of teams selected by Wine With Friends participants to win:

Kansas	9
Ohio State	8
UNC	5
Pittsburgh	4
Duke	2
Florida	1
Notre Dame	1
Purdue	1
San Diego	1
Syracuse	1

  

Statistics:

Mean	136.8181818
Median	135
Mode	123
Range	91
Minimum	84
Maximum	175

Schools Represented in previous/current Wine with Friends Brackets:

Alabama

Arkansas

Baylor

Duke

Florida

Furman

Georgia

LSU

NYU

Oklahoma

Ole Miss

Richmond

SMU

Stetson

TCU

Texas

Texas A&M

Utah

Vanderbilt

Wake Forest

Careers Represented in previous/current Wine with Friends Brackets:

Accountants

Artists

Bible Study Leaders

Brain Surgeons (Ok, it’s a bit of a stretch, but shout out to Sarah Monning!)

Child Abduction Preventers

Consultants

Graphic Designers

IT Auditors

Journalists

Lawyers

Loan Repackagers (Right Amy?)

Nurse Practitioners

Physical Therapists

Students

Teachers

Tutors

Places of Origin Represented in previous/current Wine with Friends Brackets:

Alabama

Arkansas

Canada (Anna, thanks for taking us international.)

Florida

Georgia

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

Oklahoma

Texas

Utah

Other miscellaneous facts about previous/current Wine with Friend Bracket participants:

-One contestant will only allow her alarm clock to be set to an odd number.

-One contestant has not had a carbonated beverage since 8^th grade.

-One contestant has been in a body cast.

-One contestant’s parents keep the remains of her cremated dog on top of their refrigerator.

-One contestant is so scared of the dark that she refuses to close her eyes when she washes her face.

-One contestant secretly wishes her name was Svetlana.

-If one contestant could participate in ANY Olympic sport, she would pick rhythmic gymnastics.

-Another contestant would argue that rhythmic gymnastics is a competition, not a sport.

1 - WikiQuestions.