Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine…
The Neutral Zone
Mr. and Ms. have been kicked out of City University of New York's grad school.
The Wall Street Journal first reported-- school officials sent a memo-- banning professors and other staff-- from addressing students with gender-specific greetings.
"The policy is to eliminate the use of gendered salutations and references in correspondence.
Accordingly—Mr. and Ms. should be omitted from salutations."
A school spokesperson says the move was made-- to comply with Title Nine-- prohibiting gender discrimination in schools.
That may be a stretch.
An attorney whose job it is to counsel universities on how to comply with Title Nine tells the Wall Street Journal quote --
"They are not mandated to do this…To say they must bar gendered salutations because of the law is ridiculous."
Time Is Money
If you think you're having a bad day, take heart.
A man holding a lottery ticket matching the numbers for a $21 million jackpot just learned he won't be getting a dime-- because he was seven seconds late buying his ticket.
The Supreme Court of Canada made the ruling yesterday.
Joel Ifergan got to the store just before nine o’clock-- the cut-off for buying tickets.
The clock on the lottery computer read 8:59 when he bought two tickets-- but the second one came out with a time of nine o'clock and seven seconds printed on it.
That ticket-- matched the winning numbers.
But-- the court said rules are rules-- and that ticket was eligible for the following week's drawing-- leaving Joel-- empty-handed.
By The Numbers
And finally-- in preparation for the Super Bowl-- we've compiled some stats you should know.
Eight million-- that's how many pounds of guacamole will be eaten.
You'll pair that dip-- with 14,000, 500 tons of chips.
One and a quarter billion-- that's how many chicken wings will be eaten-- averaging out to three wings-- for every single American.
325 million gallons of beer will be consumed-- enough to fill almost 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
With all that-- comes the Tums.
Antacid sales increase by 20 percent around Super Bowl Sunday.
Sometimes-- that's not enough.
Workforce management firm Kronos estimates one and a half million people will skip work-- come Monday.
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