Interesting Oddity

[Andy the Actuary]

A client sent me an employee census of a Company they just acquired. The census had 17 employees none of whose last names began with the letters A-G. The odds against this are a little over 200 to 1.

[GMK]

That is interesting.

Do the odds include a weighting for the likelihood of last names beginning with a given letter? For example, one might expect that A is more likely than, say Q.

BTW, we have most of the B's, so that explains that letter.

[Tom Poje]

of course that all depends, stats can lie.

for instance, there is a Bobby Jones Golf Tourney where only those named Bobby Jones can enter.

Do you say, wow, 100% of the golfers all with the same name. what are the odds of that?

or as one comic strip had years ago

wow, Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease. what a coincidence.

[Guest bobolink]

OT, but ... have you read where Lou Gerhig didn't have Lou Gerhig's disease? The high number of veterans with brain injuries and pro football players developing the disease is prompting researchers to conclude that stuff from the brain gets into the spinal cord due to traumatic brain injury and causes neurological deterioration that looks like Lou Gerhig's disease but does not have a genetic cause.