Dear Readers,

I am delighted to serve as the new executive editor of CHANCE. CHANCE has a special and critical role in the statistics profession and at the ASA, stimulating interest in statistics and statistical thinking through articles with interesting and important applications, the communication of new ideas, and education. I look forward to helping CHANCE grow and to serving CHANCE constituents in this capacity.

On behalf of the CHANCE readership, allow me to thank our immediate past executive editor, Sam Behseta, for his gracious and dedicated service. It was not long ago that the future of CHANCE was uncertain, particularly with the emergence of Significance. But I am happy to report that CHANCE is healthy and flourishing due in large part to Sam’s excellent leadership.

Behind every good magazine is a great staff. I send a special thank you to Megan Murphy, Melissa Gotherman, Kathryn Wright, and Valerie Nirala at the ASA for all of their help and support during the transition process.

I also would like to acknowledge the valuable service of retiring editors Yulei He, Sam Kou, Jackie Miller, and Duane Steffey. The dedicated efforts of these folks have helped to make CHANCE the success it is today. This issue also represents the final “Goodness of Wit Test” column. I thank Jonathan Berkowitz for his leadership of this column and for the creative and challenging puzzles that have entertained us since 2008. Please see his farewell puzzle, “Times Are Changing.”

Join me in welcoming our new editors, Tom Lane (The MathWorks), Mike McDermott (University of Rochester), and Lu Tian (Stanford University). You can learn a little about them, as well as the rest of the editors, in the “About Us” section.

I am pleased to introduce the “Give Them a CHANCE” campaign. Through this effort, people can provide ASA membership and access to CHANCE for special students, favorite students, or underprivileged students who may not have access otherwise. The motivation for this effort came from my interactions with several young, energetic, and promising students and my desire to do something for them. I sponsored a PhD student from Austria (Maria Haller), who traveled to Harvard to attend a course I was teaching, and I encourage others who have outstanding and deserving students to give them a CHANCE, too.

In our first article, Jeffrey Rosenthal discusses the role statistics played in a major news story in Canada, the Ontario lottery retailer scandal. Jeffrey conducted a study that showed lottery sellers were winning more lottery prizes than could be accounted for by chance alone. The fall‐out from this finding has had surprising consequences.

Dean Johnson describes the results of an online survey of statistical consulting clients from six universities in the United States and Canada. The study aimed to improve consultants’ understanding of client perspectives and improve the conduct of statistical consulting sessions. Results indicate that clients view statistical and interpersonal skills as the important factors in the success of a consult.

Andee Kaplan, Eric Hare, Heike Hofmann, and Dianne Cook evaluate whether a president can be bought using political contributions. This is an important question given the recent Supreme Court ruling that corporations and unions can spend an unlimited amount of their own money on presidential elections. Using data from the 2012 election, the authors conclude that spending does influence outcome, but perhaps not to the extent of other factors.

‎W. J. Hurley, Jack Brimberg, and Richard Kohar then examine the plausibility of the claimed winning streak of the “Beast of Blackjack” in Atlantic City. Just as fishermen often overstate the size of their catch, it appears the net winnings were overstated as well.

In our column section, Nicole Lazar beautifully discusses the hot area of functional data analysis and how it differs from time series and longitudinal data analyses. Functional data analysis is a prime example of statisticians seeing a need for new methodologies and responding to it with innovative thinking.

Shannon McClintock, Dalene Stangl, and Mine Çetinkaya‐Rundel discuss an article recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that highlighted an association between chocolate consumption and cognitive function, noting that countries with a higher chocolate consumption produced more Nobel laureates. The article was satirical in nature, and many readers and news outlets misinterpreted its intention. Shannon, Dalene, and Mine discuss these data and show us how we can use this example as a learning opportunity.

Howard Wainer uses an interesting example from genetic testing to illustrate the importance of communicator empathy in effective communication. Statistics has been called “the unselfish profession,” with statisticians often helping other scientists get through difficult analytical challenges. Communication of relevant information is important, but how information is communicated is equally as important.

Andrew Gelman and Erik Loken, using an example from the subprime mortgage crisis, highlight the need for us to improve our communication about the level of uncertainty and variation so statistical analyses are not used to overstate conclusions.

Christian Robert then presents reviews of four books: The Most Human Human, Naked Statistics, Introduction to Probability with Texas Hold’em Examples, and The Cartoon Introduction to Statistics.

Finally, interesting and high‐quality articles are the heart of CHANCE. Future CHANCE issues will be themed around hot topics, and there will be new columns, but I welcome your thoughts about the types of articles and topics you’re interested in. I also welcome suggestions for other initiatives CHANCE might undertake. I look forward to hearing from you.

Scott Evans

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