June 2, 2006 - A Plaid Plaid Plaid World?

A couple of days ago the dedicated staff of edhat.com was at some function where there were a bunch of young guys (high school age) talking in a group. They were all tall and blond, of the swimmer/surfer persuasion, and like a group of likeminded people, they were all dressed in a similar fashion. For one thing, each and every one of them wore plaid shorts that came down just below the knees.

Ed, who has the bad habit of trying to define fashion in a fashion-less world, once again took the bait. He told the dedicated staff that he had finally determined the new black, and it was plaid. Count it and we shall see, he told us.

Well, as any statistically minded person will tell you, when you take a random sample of people, the sample size for people in groups is not equal to the sum of its parts. Birds of a feather and people of similar demographics flock together. If you survey one person in a group, the rest of the people in that group will tend to be similar, not independent, as the rules specify.

What we’re trying to tell you is that once again, Ed was wrong. Yes Ed, you were. Maybe among the boys high school surfer/swimmer crowd, plaid is as popular as … girls. But since this group only makes up a small portion of our age diverse population - when you expand your focus to all the men in Santa Barbara - plaid is as common as fanny packs.

We looked. We know.

We saw a lot of men in cargo shorts and basketball shorts, but aside from a few members of the young swimmer\surfer crowd who floated into our sample, there was not a single pair of plaid shorts to be counted. In fact, the guy mowing the lawn, and a couple of skateboarders exploring the urban landscape in short-sleeved buttoned down shirts were the only men-in-plaid we saw.

Yesterday, while we were seeking the plaid truth, Ed decided that we needed to seek the plain truth, as well. In case you missed it, Edhat sent out an email to all subscribers asking them to verify their email address and their desire to have Daily Edhats emailed to them each day. Over 4,000 emails were sent, and at this time we have received 772 responses from people saying that they like getting Edhat delivered, and 151 unsubscribes. That leaves over 3,000 people who have not told us either way. If you are one of them, please help us out by responding to that email.

Our final plaid count tally was 2.9%. We are pleased and glad (plaid) to say that today’s winner of the lucky non-plaid Edhat t-shirt is Rawlings, who guessed the correct number right on the button.

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