I flipped a coin and decided to ask this question

Someone answered an AskMe question with a little poem about flipping a coin - help me find it?

If I'm remembering correctly, it was in a question about making the decision whether or not to get married or move or have a baby or some other emotionally charged thing, and the premise of the poem was that, regardless of the outcome of the coin flip, it would reveal the true desire of the decision maker. Thanks for your help!

posted by ferociouskitty to MetaFilter-related at 11:46 AM (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

This comment from Pater Aletheias in the A Tale of Two Pretties thread:

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind.
And you're hampered by not having any.
The simplest way to solve the dilemma you'll find,
Is simply by flipping a penny.

No, not so that chance shall decide the affair;
As you're passively standing there moping.
But as soon as the penny is up in the air,
You'll suddenly know what you're hoping.

--Piet Hein
posted by amyms at 12:01 PM on March 28 [16 favorites]

Ahhh, MrMoonPie, props to you. Sorry I didn't see yours when I went searching (I was only looking in AskMe comments because that's how ferociouskitty posed her question).
posted by amyms at 12:29 PM on March 28

Thank you, too, MrMoonPie!
amyms, just out of curiosity, what did you search on to find it? I did a bit of looking around and came up empty.
posted by ferociouskitty at 12:51 PM on March 28

just out of curiosity, what did you search on to find it?

I remembered that it was about "flipping a penny" so I put that phrase into the search box and then chose "Comments" and "Ask Metafilter" as the search options.
posted by amyms at 12:57 PM on March 28

The temptation to retcon this poem into one of my earliest AskMe comments in order to claim precedent is not quite overwhelming, but it is at least whelming.
posted by cortex at 1:12 PM on March 28 [1 favorite]

cortex, that'd be some serious shenanigans, since my citation predates AskMe by more than a year.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:26 PM on March 28

Predates the current origin of AskMe, you mean.

*wiggles eyebrows*
posted by cortex at 1:36 PM on March 28

Hah, fun poem. I actually do this in real life; that is, I do a thought experiment to think how I would feel if I did flip a coin for an answer. Except I pay attention to which result I'd be disappointed by, rather than which which answer I am hoping for. It's easier to gauge that way, somehow.
posted by roombythelake at 2:12 PM on March 28

The ruining, mostly. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wallhack in Counter-Strike.
posted by cortex at 2:13 PM on March 28

Is cortex's plan why the early MeFi posts start at 19, and have lots of convenient holes in between the ids? Is Matt going to silently add a bunch of posts predicting technology trends and a young Illinois senator named Barack he thinks might go far?
posted by Gary at 2:47 PM on March 28

The ruining, mostly. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wallhack in Counter-Strike.

Huddled around the dull glow of the monitor, someone's grandfather was telling us about how the end times would come when an upstart young moderator, drunk with his own power, would seek to alter the past, and in so doing, break the world.

Nonsense, we said, just stories told to scare children.
posted by juv3nal at 3:40 PM on March 28

Ooooo! I was in the right answer to a Metatalk question! I win!

I'm retiring from Metafilter now. Thanks for the good times, everyone!
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:43 PM on March 28

I flipped a coin and decided to ask this question March 28, 2008 11:46 AM Subscribe

I flipped a coin and decided to ask this question
March 28, 2008 11:46 AM Subscribe