Return of the Rain Man

Nora and I are both committed to qualitative research, to the kind of storytelling that takes you behind the facts to the larger meanings and implications.  But I've been cursed with the ability to operate a spreadsheet...

At the moment, we have received either card-based or verbal acceptance of our wedding invitations from 116 individuals (this places me exactly 30 shy of my bet from March 5th, with about a month to go).  There are rumors of others, but if you haven't either a) sent your card or b) talked to one of us directly in the past three weeks, you are not yet on the list, and we'll be calling.  We have declines, again either card-based or verbal, from 39 others.

Total heard from--155.  116 accepts from 155 responses = 74.83% approval rating, better than almost any public official.

Of the 116, 56 (48.27%) are from Middletown Springs, Tinmouth, Danby, or other immediately adjacent communities.  This represents about three percent of the total population of the immediate area.

Another thirty (25.86%) are from metro Boston, and eighteen (15.52%) from metro New York, six from one building alone (about two percent of that building's inhabitants).  The remaining twelve are from or near Berkeley, Kenosha, Tampa, Reading, Providence.

The assembled will be 48.3% male and 51.7% female, roughly the same as the national population as a whole.  It appears that there will be seven kids, ranging in age from about 6 to 17, four boys and three girls.  (Grade school 3, middle school 2, high school 2.)  Another four or five couples are using the weekend as an excuse to escape their children...

At the moment, the prize for the greatest distance traveled will go to Neoma Lavalle and Ben Bachelder, 2,978 miles (Berkeley CA); given that they lived for two years in Antarctica and that Ben has hitchhiked on all seven continents, a trip across the US is a little weekend getaway for them.  But there is a chance that they will be surpassed by a traveler from 7,217 miles away, if Sudeshna can make it from New Delhi.  The award for least distance traveled to the ceremony will be held by Emmett and Kerstin Francois, at roughly 120 feet; the award for least distance traveled to the reception will be Jeannette Marcy, at about 220 feet.

There are at minimum five highly accomplished piano players, so there'll be a piano present at the reception (a sixth pianist unfortunately won't be able to join us).  I know of at least seven talented spinners and knitters, though undoubtedly there are several others I'm not aware of.  At the moment, there are a minimum of two highly qualified pool players, and a LOAD of people whose cooking I would gladly sit down to at any moment.  Twenty-two work for colleges, eight are primarily farmers or ranchers, six are builders or woodworkers, one is a corporate pilot, and another teaches architecture to grade-school kids.  We've got a police crime analyst, a CEO of a major non-profit, a theater producer, a nightclub singer, more than a few librarians, and a shaman.

Most importantly, there are 116 (100%) friends.  And we can't wait to see you all here.

P.S. from the other half of the duo: I'd estimate that of the 116 confirmed coming to the wedding, approximately 83.4% have weighed in on the dress.