in which my life may be many things, but it is never normal

[martasfic]

We apparently don’t have a houseguest anymore. How do I know this? Because there’s one less toothbrush in the cup in the bathroom. This is how I always figure out that A.’s friends have left. I don’t mind! It just amuses me that we could have an axe-murderer sleeping on the futon and I wouldn’t know it if they kept their toothbrush in their bag.

Also, from a recent CFP from a philosophy journal:

Over the past year, our review time has averaged 46 days; about half the time, it’s even faster than that.

Well, yes. Isn’t that generally how averages work? *snickers*

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not so sure about the averages. If 46 were the median then half of the scores would be better and half would be worse. That is not necessarily true with an average because you may have excessively large or small outliers in the distribution of scores.

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

I thought of that after I posted this. You're right, their statement is only redundant for certain types of averages, or perhaps for certain types of distribution. I assume you're using average for arithmetic mean (as in, add up all the numbers, then divide by however many numbers you've added up?) You're right, that would be changed if you didn't have an even distribution.

The thing is, this was something the journals were bragging about: that they had a quick average turnaround and that half the submissions were returned more quickly than that. The only way this "half get a better than average turnaround" seems to add anything to the picture is if they're saying they have an even distribution of return times. And that just seems like an... odd thing to brag about.