Naff cricket

[peterbirks]

Texan billionaire Allen Stanford is putting up a $20m prize for a single Twenty20 cricket match. I make that +EV of $3,787.88 per ball for each and every player. Even at today's lethargic over rates that's pretty good pay. There's some volatility involved, mind. Half the players earn $7,575.76 a ball, and half earn nothing. But when you are used to only 10% getting into the prize money, that still seems a good deal.

Unfortunately, Texan billionaire Allen Stanford ballsed it all up. He appeared before a vault stacked with $50 bills. As any poker player who has been to Vegas will tell you, the Ulysses S Grant is the naffest bill in Federal issue. People don't want to be paid in them. They are too large to be changed in a number of small stores ("No bill larger than a twenty") and yet if you have a roll, they take up twice the space as 100s. And, let's face it, they don't have the caché of a Franklin.

But what puzzles me is why? Is it to make the prize look bigger? In which case, why not twenties?

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Comments

Touchet!

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting nigh on twenty seven years to get back at you for correcting my indefensible use of "au fait" when what I should clearly have typed was "au courant."

As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Hah! "caché" indeed.

Under normal circumstances, I would let this faux pas slip by; but the inappropriate accentuation is just too good an opportunity to miss.

I know the insurance world is possibly the earliest entrant into the Global Economy, but just how many keys do you have on your keyboard? Does it incorporate the entire Unicode character set?

As for the $50 bills, pah. Easily explained. Baseball players like Barry Bonds are paid in gold bars and tip (I have this on good authority) in George Washingtons. I imagine that soccer players proceed in more or less the same fashion, although i concede that Christmas parties in Manchester night-clubs might have their own prevailing etiquette.

$50 to yer average cricket professional is a pretty good bung. Furthermore, most of them went to public schools, and hence have no understanding of the finer points of bling, historical references, or, indeed, poker tournaments.

Re: Touchet!

[ftitmus.livejournal.com]

Barry Bonds is unemployed.

Re: Touchet!

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

So's Fred Titmus. So am I, for that matter. Can't speak for Fred, but I stick rigorously to a 15% tip.

Now, all I have to do is to find the sort of restaurant where said tip should be counted out in Ben Franklins... There aren't a lot of those round Birmingham way.

Re: Touchet!

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Oh well, this is where I say "that's what sub-editors are for". I think that "caché" is a less egregious error than the more common "cache", in that it is at least a homophonic mistake, and I make those all the time.

As for the Unicode set, yes, my keyboard does incorporate the entire set, provided that I have NumLock on. I have the codes pinned to the board begind my desk. Frequently used joys are ALT + 130 (the aforementioned e acute), ALT + 0162, ALT + 0163, ALT +0165 and ALT + 0128 (currency symbols), ALT + 0228, 0246, 0252 (umlauts). And those are just the ones committed to memory.

My point is that, even to non-poker players, the $50 bill is naff. I have asked people why, and the general answer is that it is neither fish nor fowl. Hundred dollar bills make up a bankroll. $20 bills and under are for spending. The $50 bill sits uncomfortably in between.

Now, as to why the Americans can't cope with the concept of a dollar coin (when surely within a decade we will have a tenner as the smallest note in circulation ) is one for which I can't get a logical explanation.

PJ

Homophonic mistakes

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Is that where you titter to yourself in an affected, squeaky voice like Graham Norton? (I've got a Nortonesque "caché" echoing tinnily round my head even as I type.)

The problem with the dollar coin is that it's unaffectionately known as the Susan B Anthony. This goes down with the average American about as well as Monica Lewinsky ... er ... Hillary Clinton. All they're going to have to do is to change it to the Ronnie Reagan, and you're all set.

I'd like to add an offensive reference to the film "Zoo" here, just to round things off nicely, but sadly I haven't seen it yet.