Locutus wrote:
"Toller" wrote in message
...

So, are you saying it is mostly luck, or that you are incredibly good?
I thought it was mostly luck, until someone won 2 years in a row.


heh... I don't know, I like to think it's because I am incredibly good.

Luck has very little to do with it when there are several well-tuned
cars in the race. Several times I've seen tounaments that lasted all
day, with one car that crossed the finish line first every single time
it ran. You can't attribute that sort of success to luck.

Having said that . . .every year Fate chooses to smile on some kid who
had little or no help. He takes the nails out of the box and pounds
them in with a hammer. The heavenly bodies all line up in the proper
orientation, and his car does very well, but it still doesn't beat the
ones with polished axles and turned wheels. The rest of those kids
usually suffer a different fate. I've seen several cars that stopped
before they got to the finish line.

I've held work days in my shop with my tools and assistance to try to
help some of these boys be more competitive. But they aren't the ones
who show up. None of the single mothers or non-technical dads bring
their kids. It's the young dads who are sure they know how to build a
fast car, they just need the tools to do it.

In the end, somebody has to be last in every competition. I didn't
contribute the genes or the tutoring to allow my boy to be good at
football, baseball, basketball or soccer. He certainly knows the agony
of being last in those areas. But I can show him how to build a fast
pinewood car.


DonkeyHody
"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom
that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down
on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid
again---and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold
one anymore." - Mark Twain