5 Thoughts for November 2, 2016

1. 100%: According to Sam Wang's projection as of right now, the Bayesian probability of a Hillary win has now hit 100%. The current snapshot shows Hillary with a 317 electoral college vote win. Fivethirtyeight, having been burned by Donald's primary win, has been tweaked their formula to make it extremely conservative, showing just a 67% chance of winning, but with an estimate of 296 electoral college votes.
2. Cubs Win World Series: The curse is officially broken. The last time they were this close, a great former USC Trojan pitcher by the name of Mark Prior was pitching a 3-hit shutout and some fool intervened. That single event marked the collapse of the Cubs' post-season and everyone old enough to have watched that game would point to the curse as the explanation for that collapse. Thank goodness the Cubs have finally gotten over that curse. (ADD: You realize, Back to the Future was just one year off?)
3. Not the Weiner: Somehow, this feels both perfectly appropriate and inappropriate for right now:
   
   
4. Salt n Straw: Went there tonight and sampled nearly all of the November flavors. Sweet potato casserole with maple pecans is definitely my favorite this month. I was also at SnS last week and grabbed a cone of the Essence of Ghost, which I can only describe as totally smooth awesomeness.
5. PredictIt: Man, if only I had money to play around with, I'd dump thousands of dollars into buying up the panic that has set in the market. A Hillary win is down to $0.67, which is not quite the floor for the season ($0.61) but it would be a perfect opportunity to make a massive, quick profit. As of this writing, I'd need just $8111 to buy up the top 3 buy offers (lowest-priced), and following a Hillary win I'd net $3721 for a 6-day 46% ROI.