Let's Try A 70 MPH Survey Today

As many of you know, I often conduct this survey in which I keep my speed to the legal limit of 65 miles an hour on the interstate for the purpose of getting an idea of how many people are breaking the law.  Of course, everyone who passes me is a law breaker whereas everyone I have to pass is going less than 65 and is thus legal.

It comes out to be about 85 percent law breakers, not just once or twice but every time I do it.

However, as logical as this survey is in gauging law breakers, two or three people have complained that it is meaningless since a vast majority of people COULD be going exactly the same speed as I am, 65.  Thus, I would never encounter these people one way of the other.  That certainly wouldn't explain those who go sailing by me, but just to get a different set of data, here's what I've decided to do.

Within the next few hours, at great personal risk, I will break the law for the hour it takes me to go from Concord to Lebanon on Interstate 89.  I will travel not at 65 miles per hour, my usual speed for this survey, but at 70 miles an hour.  Thus, there will be no doubt that everyone who passed me is breaking the law (sadly, as I will also be doing).  If those two or three people who pooh-pooh my past surveys are correct and there are multitudes going exactly 65, I should encounter them as I roar along at 70.

My guess is that I won't get 85 percent at this speed, but it'll still be more than 50 percent.

As always, I will be honest (I don't count tractor trailer trucks or those entering and exiting the highway).  If the Bixby Memorial Library in Vergennes, Vermont is open tomorrow (or if my brother has gone high tech in the last month--most unlikely), I will report back tomorrow.

Have a Happy.

For Christmas, I began reading Meacham's new Jefferson biography, finished Oliver Twist, and struggled to get going with A Tale of Two Cities ("it was the best of books; it was the worst of books to get into").

Also, I came up with two changes on the year in review awards, got the 2012 book list, and the 2013 resolutions ready for release...but I fully expect to be out of computer range for the foreseeable future.  That's good for reading, but bad for posting.