Nate Silver Likes Burritos

By now, most of you know who Nate Silver is. For those of you who don't know (get out of your cave), he's the famed writer/statistician who correctly predicted this year's presidential election in ALL 50 states AND our nation's capital.What's more, in 2008, he correctly predicted the winner of the presidential election in 49 of the 50 states and the winners of all 35 U.S. Senate races. Oh, and he just so happens to run a little old blog, FiveThirtyEight, for the NY Times. Needless to say, he's a baller. Period. I like the guy.

Like yours truly, Mr. Silver is a proud product of Michigan. Indeed, he grew up in East Lansing (home of Sparty and Earvin Magic Johnson) and is a die hard Detroit Tigers fan. This makes me like the guy even more.

What some probably don't know about Mr. Silver is his affinity for the burrito. In fact, he was so taken by the wheat flour tortilla concoction that he launched and operated a burrito blog for a few years while residing in Chicago. Mr. Silver's blog, the Burrito Bracket, pitted burritos, tacos and other tasty Mexicano treats from his Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park against each other in a competition much like the NCAA tournament. That's some serious commitment! This makes me really dig the guy!

As a fish taco enthusiast and a fellow proud Michigander, I just cannot overlook the uncanny similarities Mr. Silver and I share. I'm not saying that I'm a baller like he is, but it does give me hope. What hope, you may ask? Well, the hope that, in time, my career will really take off like his, and I'll be able to even more proudly flaunt my Michigan-ness. Even if my career doesn't reach the same heights, I'm just proud to see Mr. Silver to do his thing, do it pretty damn well, and do it with humor and humility. Keep on, keeping on, Nate!