The Office Pool, 2006

NY Times ^ | December 30, 2005 | WILLIAM SAFIRE

[neverdem]

HERE is your 32nd annual chance to Beat the Pundit. In each multiple choice, pick one, none or all. In a good year, a master prognosticator gets four right.

1. U.S. troops in Iraq at 2006 year's end will number: (a) current "base line" 138,000; (b) closer to 100,000; (c) closer to 90,000; (d) 80,000 or below.

2. Speaker of the House succeeding Dennis Hastert will be: (a) Mike Pence; (b) Rahm Emanuel; (c) Steny Hoyer; (d) Roy Blunt; (e) Nancy Pelosi; (f) Tom DeLay.

3. Best-picture Oscar to: (a) Woody Allen's comeback, "Match Point"; (b) Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain"; (c) James Mangold's "Walk the Line" (cashing in on Reese Witherspoon's performance); (d) Niki Caro's antisexist "North Country."

4. The Robertscalito court will: (a) in the Texas case disengage from involvement in states' redistricting; (b) go the other way in Oregon, holding that federal power to prohibit substances trumps a state's authority to permit physician-assisted suicide; (c) decide that federal funds can be denied to law schools that prohibit military recruitment on campus; (d) uphold McCain-Feingold, enabling Congress to restrict political contributions but not expenditures; (e) reassert citizens' Fourth Amendment protection from "security letters" and warrantless surveillance.

5. Nonfiction sleeper best seller will be: (a) "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed," by Alan Alda; (b) "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent, the new Steinem; (c) "In Search of Memory," by Nobelist Eric Kandel.

6. Fiction surprise will be: (a) "Eye Contact" by Cammie McGovern, about an autistic murder witness; (b) "The World to Come" by Dara Horn, about a museum heist; (c) a media murder mystery by Russ Lewis; (d) second novel by Scooter Libby about anything.

[bybybill]

Did you see the joke? The NYT wants a red neck conservative gun owner like me to register with them? sure, that`s the ticket

[RockinRight]

1. c
2. a
3. c
4. c
5. b
6. a
7. a
8. a
9. c
10.a
11.b
12. is there another option here?
13.d
14.a

[Torie]

Safire's choices are pretty good, although I don't know enough about all of the questions. I don't think the Dow will break 12,000 however, and don't think Rice is in the mix for 2008.

[neverdem]

http://bugmenot.com/

[phantomworker]

Don't have a clue for any of these!!! Where have I been all year? LOL!!

[martin_fierro]

HERE is your 32nd annual chance to Beat the Pundit.

The NYT will be a penny stock within (a) a month (b) a year (c) five years (d) NEVER! I'm a cockeyed optimist.

[upchuck]

THANK YOU for linking to the Printer Friendly version of the article.

Those of us trapped in 56K dialup HELL really appreciate it!

Use bimbyflam and bimbyflam to log in to the NYT and read this article. (bimbyflam courtesy of bugmenot.com :)

[only1percent]

My picks: 1 (b), 2 (d), 3(b), 4(a,b,c & d), 5 (no opinion), 6 (no opinion), 7 (c), 8 (a), 9 (b), 10 (c), 11 (none of the above), 12 (a), 13 (b), 14 (a).

[bert]

D. The Times can go back to basics by selling the radio stations and worst other news papers.

It will not be a penny stock.

It will always be a worthless company however. It is after all the Old Gray Whore, Madam for the bordello that houses the presstitutes.

[Liz]

Heheh......"all the news fit to print"......except bad news about itself.

[Hatteras]

"Don't have a clue for any of these!!! Where have I been all year? LOL!!"

Can't tell you. But, do you see that bewildered and confused gentleman standing next to you scratching his head mumbling something along the lines of, "WTF?!"? Well, that would be me.

[NeoCaveman]

1) d
2) a
4) c

Dow 12,500. It's only a 16% increase.

[EQAndyBuzz]

The Old Gray Marxist Whore is irrelevant.

Happy New Year New York Slimes.

[phantomworker]

LOL!

[crasher]

I think the most interesting point Safire made is how Bush's presidency resembles Truman's. Sounds about right to me.