astro
October 28, 2009, 11:06am
1
They do!
Fictional actuaries
And of course there’s always the actuarial speculative fiction collection by actuaries themselves.
Here’s the 2005 contest stories
“Oh. Those are the Black Beans of Death. That is, the black markers are the Black Beans of Death. I’m not sure what the other ones are called. I guess they would have to be the ‘White Beans of Life’.”
“Um…could you elaborate?”
“We don’t use them. They’re left over from a project a couple of years ago. Wilson and Warner from the attorney general’s office set up a special program that produced those indicators. They needed it for some case they were building against certain property developers. Had to do with losses from hurricane Lorenzo.”
“So what do they mean?”
“Black indicator says the model is expecting a death in the time period analyzed. White indicator says the model is not expecting a death for that record.”
“So what’s this ‘bean’ stuff?”
“Warner is a Texas history buff. The Black Beans of Death are from an event during the Texas revolution. A group was held captive by the Mexicans, and the Mexican leader ordered ten percent of the prisoners killed. Each prisoner had to pull a bean from a sack. The ten percent drawing black beans were executed. Thus, the Black Beans of Death.”
There are smaller professions with greater fictional exposure, at least on TV. ‘Sportswriter’ springs to mind.
And - even more so - private investigator.
Wait, aside from The Odd Couple , what sportswriter characters have there been on TV?
Ray Romano, of course. Dabney Coleman played one once, I think.
One assumes at least one of the characters on Sports Night, since that was about a fictional sports news show.
Actuaries are more mysterious/obscure than accountants, but still convey the image of professionalism and numbers-orientation. (Personal aside: I was an actuary once, but I did a 12-step program to get over it.)
Labdad
October 28, 2009, 8:53pm
9
Q: What’s the difference between an introverted actuary and an extroverted actuary?
A: The introvert looks at his shoes when he’s talking to you and the extrovert looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you.
Labdad:
Q: What’s the difference between an introverted actuary and an extroverted actuary?
A: The introvert looks at his shoes when he’s talking to you and the extrovert looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you.
Oodles of actuarial jokes , some of which are even quite funny.
One I rather like:
A group of people is touring the Grand Canyon, and the tour guide asks if anyone knows the age of the canyon. Everybody is mumbling but nobody answers. An actuary raises his hand and says, “one million and three years old!” The guide is amazed and asks the actuary how he knows this so exactly. The actuary answers, “Three years ago I visited the Grand Canyon, and one of your guides said the canyon was one million years old.”
Come on now…they are just dieing for exposure and it shows
It’s more than that. They are like the Fates, knowing just when your thread will be cut.
