It's been confirmed that the Jellybean Mystery doesn't ALWAYS work. Which is kind of great, because it illustrates that there isn't anything that MAKES it work, ever. It just usually does.
The book I read it in said it "virtually always" does, and I presumed, after it worked the first time, that this was rhetorical hedging. It is improper reasoning to want to find a reason it didn't happen this time. It happens sometimes, without being caused to happen. But it makes sense to wonder, because if it doesn't often happen enough, it isn't really a meaningful coincidence when it does.
Maybe it was the youngsters, maybe it was the wine, it could have been my logistics or just the atmosphere. But it was a good scenario for a failure, nobody even realized it was anything but a jellybean contest like any other. I was looking forward to discussing some cosmology and philosophy, and that didn't happen, but I'm even more determined to figure out where to do the next one. I'm pretty close to setting up a table in the park or something. Details will be posted.
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