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Freakonomics Quiz: Where Does the Harvard Class of 1989 Live Now?

My 20-year Harvard reunion just took place. I have to confess that I didn’t actually go. (I told one of the organizers that I would attend if and only if he could get Mira Sorvino to sing the Yaz song “Only You” acapella, like she did one time in the freshman dining hall 23 years ago. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t make it happen.)
On the big reunion years, Harvard sends each of us a red book containing the alumni report on what everyone is doing now. I could find nine people from my class who are famous/semi-famous/infamous. Interestingly, not one of them sent in an entry to be published in the book. Overall, about 40 percent of the people in the class sent in updates. What was most surprising about the famous people not writing in is that many of them are famous because they are writers.
The other thing that struck me as interesting and somewhat surprising was the geographic distribution of my former classmates. Let’s see whether the distribution is surprising to the blog readers by running a contest.
The first person to correctly identify the five cities in which the greatest number of my classmates currently reside wins a signed copy of Freakonomics. As a bonus, if that person correctly lists the cities in descending order of the number of my classmates who reside there, we’ll throw in some extra prize.
Note: this contest is not open to anyone who has access to the red book that contains the answer. I don’t want people looking up the answer; I want to see who can reason it out.
If no one gets the correct answer within 24 hours (which I am sure someone will, both because our blog readers always amaze me with their answers and because I’m sure there are cheaters among you), then the first person to get four out of five cities wins the prize.
Addendum: Find the answer, and the winner, here.


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