Year of the Jackpot 7

I feel that when it does rain, it's going to rain awfully hard."
He added, "Forty days and forty nights, maybe."
She decided that he was being humorous and laughed.
He went on, "Can you remember how you got the idea?"
She swirled her glass and thought. "I simply don't know."
He nodded. "That's what I expected."
"I don't understand youunless you think I'm crazy. Do
you?"
"No. I think you had to do it and could not help it and
don't know why and can't know why."
"But you know." She said it accusingly.
"Maybe. At least I have some figures. Ever take any
interest in statistics, Meade?"
She shook her head. "Figures confuse me. Never mind
statistics1 want to know why I did what I didl"
He looked at her very soberly. "I think we're lemmings,
Meade."
She looked puzzled, then horrified. "You mean those little
furry mouselike creatures? The ones that"
"Yes. The ones that periodically make a death migration,
until millions, hundreds of millions of them drown them-
selves in the sea. Ask a lemming why he does it. If you
could get him to slow up his rush toward death, even money
says he would rationalize his answer as well as any college
graduate. But he does it because he has toand so do we."
"That's a horrid idea, Potiphar."
"Maybe. Come here, Meade. I'll show you figures that
confuse me, too." He went to his desk and opened a drawer,
took out a packet of cards. "Here's one. Two weeks ago
a man sues an entire state legislature for alienation of his
wife's affectionand the judge lets the suit be tried. Or this
onea patent application for a device to lay the globe over
on its side and warm up the arctic regions. Patent denied,
but the inventor took in over three hundred thousand dol-
lars in down payments on South Pole real estate before the
postal authorities stepped in. Now he's fighting the case and
it looks as if he might win. And hereprominent bishop
proposes applied courses in the so-called facts of life in high
schools." He put the card away hastily. "Here's a dilly: a bill
introduced in the Alabama lower house to repeal the laws
of atomic energynot the present statutes, but the natural
laws concerning nuclear physics; the wording makes that
plain." He shrugged. "How silly can you get?"
"They're crazy."
"No, Meade. One such is crazy; a lot of them is a lemming
death march. No, don't objectI've plotted them on a curve.