There is such a thing as taking my suggestions too seriously

I have a good friend named Tim Groseclose. Loyal blog readers may remember Tim as the political science professor who lost a bet to me because he was certain that his CD player knew which songs were his favorites and overplayed them when he set it to random. I made him commit to a set of songs he considered his favorites ahead of time and — at least that time — his CD player didn’t show any favoritism, which resulted in my winning the bet.

From Tim’s holiday card (written by his wife Victoria):

On our way back from the Philippines, a package fell out of our plane’s overhead bin and hit Tim on the head. It actually drew blood and several employees of the airline approached him to make sure he was okay. When the incident occurred — we swear that we’re not making this up — he happened to have been reading a book entitled “A Whack on the Side of the Head.” He’d bought the book due to Steve Levitt’s recommendation from an article in the Financial Times. He still has a bruise on his forehead. He blames Steve for it.