Wednesday, 1/9

I think I've stumped even myself with this one.

I was going through old “What's Up, U.P.?” questions, seeing if there were any that I could repurpose for “High School Bowl” (where I try to throw in an Upper Michigan question here or there just to make it interesting). I found a bunch of great ones, and then I came across a piece of paper that had the following written on it--

Delta 81.8

Menominee 81.7

Marquette 81.5

Luce 81

Alger 80.9

Baraga 80.7

And on and on like that, listing every U.P. county except Iron. I also had a notation that I had asked questions about longest and shortest, which makes sense, if only because I like to keep track of what I ask. There's only one problem with the whole thing--

I have no ideas what the numbers mean.

For some reason, I didn't write down what I was asking; I didn't write down what the numbers actually signified. I assume that I didn't think I needed to write it down, that I'd remember what those numbers meant, but as with most assumptions, all I did was made a heinie out of myself. I mean, I'm sure the numbers mean something—in fact, I KNOW the numbers mean something. I just have no idea what that “something” is.

My first thought was that it had something to do with Great Lakes shore frontage; you know, how many miles of each county touches a Great Lake. But seeing as how Dickinson County is on the list, and Dickinson County doesn't even touch a Great Lake, that theory was pretty well shot. I then tried typing “Delta County 81.8” into Google, but nothing popped up, aside from a very weird ad claiming that Delta Airlines could fly me somewhere for 81 dollars.

Where's that? Negaunee?

I'll have to do a little more research into what that list actually meant. Total mileage of each county's roads? Length of snowmobile trails? Longest and shortest piece of twine in each county? At this moment, I really have no idea. I just know that I asked questions about the longest and shortest of those numbers. Now I just have to figure out the “longest” and “shortest” of what.

And, of course, remember to write it down somewhere so that I don't repeat this whole thing the next time I need to put some questions together.

Sigh. Some days, it's not easy being me. Really, it isn't!

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)