All for an apple

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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During the 1970's my husband was Headmaster of a boarding and day school in the SWMidlands. It happened that we were invited to dinner one October evening with the Head of a neighbouring school, Robert Muldooney*, and his wife and his wife Margaret; the two men knew each other slightly, but I had not met either of the couple. On the afternoon of the day we were to dine with them, I started to store apples in our cellar, in a discarded chest of drawers which had been used for apple-storing by a long-ago occupant of the house. The first drawer I opened was lined with newspaper from an old and yellowed copy of The Times. It was the Court page. An entry leapt to my eyes: " The engagement is announced between Robert, elder son of . . . and . . . Muldooney, and Margaret, younger daughter . . . " (* names changed). I took the piece of paper to dinner with me that night. "Oh, thank you" said our hostess, "I'm so glad to have that; I was in Australia when my mother put the announcement in the paper, and I never got a copy." "And all was for an apple. . ."
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Date submitted:Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:30:19 +0000Coincidence ID:5939