Funmurphys: the Blog

2004 Presidential Election Challenge

Here's the challenge: Avoid learning who won the presidential election for as long as possible.

In 2000 I managed to make it for a whole month! But that was an exceptional year.

I think the networks will avoid projecting the winner until sometime late on Election Night, so Tuesday should be pretty easy. Wednesday will be more difficult. I have to avoid the newspaper, the radio, the Internet, and of course TV. But I have some meetings at work during the day, and probably somebody will spill the beans then. I'll request my wife's forbearance in telling me who won, although Christine is keenly interested in the outcome. My guess is that I'll make it until Wednesday about noon.

Who else wants to participate? Come on! Everyone who reads this blog is a news junkie, so it will require all your restraint. But you don't really have to know right away! You can do your job and go about your daily life for a few days without knowing who is going to be our next (or continuing) president. How far do you think you can make it? Until Thursday? If you decide to go on a backpacking trip in November just to avoid finding out, you deserve to win the challenge.

You're out of the game when you know that you know who won. I will post a follow-up entry when I find out. I will note the exact local time, and exactly how I accidentally found out. If you want to play, you can post similar information in the Comments section of that future entry. If you have to ask "What's the point of this?", you probably aren't the right person to play.

I'm going out now. You will not hear from me until we meet again on the other side of that Great Divide . . .