The Birthday Paradox

This past Friday was my little brother's birthday. He probably heard "May the 4th Be With You" at least 10 times that day. Luckily, he really does love Star Wars! His wife decided to plan a surprise party for him last night at the Brick Oven Restaurant in South Jordan. Have you been there? I had only ever visited the one next to BYU. It was fun to try out a new location. And Mmmmmm...I can taste the delicious pizza now. Getting eight different people to agree on a pizza (with vegetarians, those who are gluten-intolerant and others who say pineapple is a ridiculous pizza topping) is not an easy task. After much debate, we managed to finally decide on...

A Meat Lovers Deep Dish Extra Large Pizza and

a Vegetarian Pizza, but without pineapple on one half and my aunt agreed that she could just scrape off the vegetables to avoid the gluten in the crust. Perfect!







As we enjoyed our pizzas, we discussed the Birthday Paradox. I had never heard of this before. Did you know that in a room of just 23 people, there’s a 50-50 chance of two people having the same birthday? In a room of 75, there’s a 99.9% chance of two people matching. Whoa. That is hard for the human brain to understand because we can't get over the fact that there are 365 days in a year! Even on our table of eight, my uncle and sister-in-law share the same birthday. Crazy. My brother mentioned that the odds of finding a same birthday in a restaurant are even higher because many people celebrate birthdays at a restaurant. I am still trying to wrap my brain around this paradox.

My family often gives gifts for birthdays. I think it gets harder to buy for somebody as they get older because it seems that they have most everything they want and need (at least that fits into my gift-giving budget). I hate to get people little trinkets that just turn into junk. I decided this year to get Jerry a "gift card." This is really a family joke. We get somebody a gift card to any random place, but do not activate it. Then we include a 20 dollar bill and say that it is "the gift card." This way, the person can use it at the store they would actually choose. Taping it to Mint Grasshopper cookies is an extra bonus. Hooray!

My mother has reminded me several times that my Christmas and Birthday present for the next couple of years is an upcoming Disney Cruise. We have been talking about taking a Disney Cruise with my Aunt and Disney-loving Uncle for the last five years. We are finally going to make it happen this Thanksgiving. Frankly, I am okay with this. I have never been on a cruise in my life and I am excited to try it out. My mom wanted Jerry to know the same thing. She decided to get him a little present to remind him of the upcoming cruise. She found this cute Mickey Mouse bowl at Target. She planned on filling it with goldfish crackers. The card said: "The fishes in the sea are waiting for you in the Bahamas for a Disney Cruise!" It was such a cute idea. Unfortunately, she dropped the bowl, getting out of the car with bags of groceries. Mickey's ears just couldn't take the pressure. This was something that was funny to watch as an observer, but very frustrating to my poor mother. I couldn't stop laughing, as I watched it all play out, but quickly stopped when I saw she was about to cry. Oh well. Luckily, I had given her the same bowl for Christmas and she could just use that one. Save!


After devouring the pizza and opening the gifts, the servers dropped by to sing Happy Birthday. This is always a fun moment in the spotlight for the Birthday Boy/Girl. My dad reminded them that the regular Happy Birthday song that we all know is copyrighted and cannot be sung in a restaurant. Luckily, these servers had a song of their own. I guess all that attention is worth it because you get a free birthday dessert. All right!

Happy Birthday, Brother!