Gambling can have positive effects you could never imagine
In April 1989, a conservative friend of mine (and Michigan alum) bet at-the-time left-liberal me (a Seton Hall alum) that Michigan would beat SHU in the NCAA men's basketball finals. The bet was if SHU won, he had to subscribe to The Nation for a year. If Michigan won, I'd have to subscribe to National Review. Michigan won in OT, and I signed up to read Mr. Buckley's magazine.Being a compulsive reader, I couldn't just ignore the thing. There was something about it that got to me ... I didn't even know conservatives could argue — and certainly not be so erudite, witty and damned reasonable about it. I didn't become conservative right away, but found myself adopting more and more conservative positions on things.