{"id":4438,"date":"2010-10-27T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=4438"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:13:12","slug":"feed-your-inner-bookie-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=4438","title":{"rendered":"Feed your inner “bookie”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul, the octopus, has died. You remember Paul. He predicted the winner of 8 world cup matches in the last world cup series in South Africa. OK, he was based in Germany – or should I say “tanked” in Germany. Caretakers would put a flag from each of the opposing teams on one of two tanks. Whichever tank Paul crawled into, that team was predicted to be the winner – and he was right 8 times – he was an Octopus.<\/p>\n

The Yin….as one British bookmaker said…”it created a lot of interest in betting from people who would not have bothered, otherwise.”…and this is a good thing?”<\/p>\n

The Yang…. Paul cost the betting world 1.5 million in loses….a drop in the bucket, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

What has Paul got to do with business or knitting or anything else besides Soccer and gambling?  Well a lot really.<\/p>\n

He became a celebrity….how many famous octopodes (shorter Oxford English Dictionary) do you know? Yes, I remember 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea…any more? He came from obscurity – try making it in this world from a marine centre in Oberhausen. He’s not really what you would call glamorous, – again try making it with flaccid, scaly flesh covered in tentacles. He’s as far as we know, mute – but he rose to the top, so to speak. He is what the Brits would call “canny” – no pun intended. When we feel that things are just too overwhelming, that maybe we should throw in the towel – remember Paul – enlist the help of caregivers – add some mussel…err…muscle and set out to create a winning profile.<\/p>\n

I love Paul because he has 8 “arms”.  I can’t count the number of times that I have prayed for just another set of hands to help finish up a few extra projects in too short a time frame. Well when I really sat down to think about it – could I really manage doing 2 or 3 lace projects simultaneously? Perhaps, if they were all the same stitch and all at the same spot in the repeats. But what if I had to tink one, stop to count another and still work on the third…it gets worse when you add different projects in different gauges not to mention the sewing up!!!<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\nNo, Paul was good at what he did and we are adequately equipped to knit our way to stardom with two hands and a little imagination. However, I would still like to have a Paul or something similar to predict what samples, yarns or patterns etc to stock, or take to knitting shows or..or..or. Now this is really a “crap(s) shoot.” The game is “Craps”. The common usage is “crap shoot.” If you don’t make the right decisions the outcome could be a load of ______.<\/div>\n

\nDinner tonight?  Nothing marine – we’re in mourning. How about KD – maybe not – do you remember the commercial about the guppies? <\/p>\n

I know, I used to teach with a woman, who always maintained that you could do Breakfast at least one night during the week – go for it – just hold the kippers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul, the octopus, has died. You remember Paul. He predicted the winner of 8 world cup matches in the last world cup series in South Africa. OK, he was based in Germany – or should I say “tanked” in Germany. Caretakers would put a flag from each of the opposing teams on one of two tanks. Whichever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unicorns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4439,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions\/4439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}