I stepped to the front of the stage and started speaking:

“In the beginning was the bet, and the bet was good, because [the other guy] lost…”

But I was wearing a hard hat when I said those words, so obviously this year…we lost. We performed as the Village People in front of an audience of fifty or so of our friends (and some somewhat stunned civilians). The picture is below, because I figure it’ll be all over the Internet tubes soon, anyway…

But there’s a light at the bottom of every bushel, because a) the guy in the sumo diaper (technically a mawashi) actually won the bet this year, until he foolishly made a side bet with me; and b) the drunk couple in the bar after we performed asked the bartender if “that band is coming back on”. We also passed the hard hat and raised almost $500 for Riders for Health, a pretty good charity.

Year before last, four friends made a bet against a fifth friend on the MotoGP motorcycle roadracing championship and won – American Nicky Hayden defeated Italian superstar Valentino Rossi.

Last year, we started talking terms on the bet and one of the four of us – hint, he had to dress as the Indian – accepted prematurely (he didn’t get points), and we bet on Nicky again. Sadly, Nicky was rewarded for his championship when Honda unveiled the motorcycle he had to ride this last season, and it was designed for his diminutive and humorless teammate, Dani Pedrosa instead of him, Vale beat Nicky, but I managed to get a side bet in on young Australian Casey Stoner, riding the Ducati.

And Stoner was flawless all season; technically superb, committed, and psychologically unflappable by master gamesman Rossi.

We’ve started negotiating the terms of the new bet…

(Yes, we did Y.M.C.A. We even rehearsed and had choreography and stuff. When we pay up, we pay up.)