A few weeks back I got a package in the mail from the Nielson rating folks. Somehow they had chosen me to keep a diary for one week of all my radio listening. In the package was a booklet explaining what they wanted of me. A very well designed "diary" with the times and days all marked out so I could simply draw lines and x's all over it to indicate when I was listening to the radio and where I was at the time. There were a bunch of very nifty self adhesive dots each printed with the call letters and frequency of a radio station in my listening area. There was a questionaire they wanted me to fill out unless I had a child in the house over 13 and younger than 18 in which case they wanted that kid to fill it out. But best of all, in the package was a brand new five dollar bill! The booklet promised me another five dollar bill if I played along and sent them back the diary properly completed and an additional two dollars for the completed questionaire. So I did their bidding. I feel cheap and used but I did all the sordid things they asked of me. Yes, I admit it. I did it for the money!

Yesterday it came. I got my thank you note and a brand new five dollar bill and two brand new one dollar bills. Right away I noticed something odd about the singles. Here take a look:

How can it be? What are the odds? In case you don't pick up on it, the two bills are not consecutive serial numbers (which would not have been at all remarkable). They are one thousand bills apart! What the?