A bird in the hand....

Yep, I am pleased to bring you all another of my Dad's futile attempts at debating with me. This time my brother Connor joined in. I'm teaching him well. :)

[TV commercial says that the next lottery is worth $38 million]
Dad: Damn it! That lottery never went!
Connor: What?
Dad: No one won that lottery. Last week it was thirty million, now it’s thirty-eight.
Me: So?
Dad: That means I didn’t win the thirty million.
Me: Well, now you have a chance to win thirty-eight million.
Dad: There’s this old saying….“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
Me: And?
Dad: It means a sure thing is better than something you just have a chance at. I’d rather take a sure thirty million than a thirty-eight million I may not win.
Me: Ok, but that thirty million was not a sure thing. You have about the same chance winning this thirty-eight as you did with the thirty.
Dad: [looks at me for a couple seconds, unblinking] “A bird in the hand – ”
Me: If you really believed that, you’d just keep the money you normally spend on lottery tickets.
Dad: Well…..yeah….but at least this way I had the hope of winning the thirty million.
Connor: Now you have hope of winning thirty-eight.
Dad: What’s another eight million? Thirty is plenty. And it’s a sure thing.
Me: It is most definitely not a sure thing.
Dad: But I had the hope.
Me: If you’re hoping about something, it is not a sure thing. There’d be no reason to hope if it was.
Dad: [shaking his head] You guys have this flawed logic….
[Connor and myself laugh]
Me: Yeah, okay then.
Connor: Yeah, we’re wrong.
Dad: There was the possibility that I could win. I had the hope that I was the winner. That commercial proved I was not the winner. My hope is gone.
Me: No it’s not. Now you can hope to win even more money!
Dad: But it’s not a sure thing!
Me: Wow.

Meh. I can see where the guy was coming from.

There are locusts in your Dad's logic tree... (no offense).

Wow is right. Funny though. :)

HA. I think I understand what your dad meant though. I assume he meant that it would be better to have won the thirty million than to have a chance at winning thirty eight. I think he skipped over the step where it was extremely unlikely that he win the thirty million in the first place.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonHA. I think I understand what your dad meant though. I assume he meant that it would be better to have won the thirty million than to have a chance at winning thirty eight. I think he skipped over the step where it was extremely unlikely that he win the thirty million in the first place.

Well, yeah. I understood what he meant too, and I'm sure Connor did as well. I just love it when he tries to tell us his thoughts using only 3/4 of the words he needs to. It's an invitation for me to whoop him at logicry.

I stopped going to Mensa meetings when they became too depressing because there was all this angst about stupid people breeding while intelligent people chose to remain childless.

Then I see that someone as obtuse as your father somehow produced you.

There is hope for the world after all. :cool:

I think you should take him out back and fix his wagon.... ;)

I'm not sure that a bird that might hopefully exist is worth two in the bush... I think I'd take the two in the bush... Maybe you misunderstand and he's making no attempt at logic at all - it's pythoesque surrealism...

I think your home life has the makings of a sit-com series... [insert title here]

I want to bug your guys' house.