An example on why it's important to read directions.

I've been half-playing the Citgo Pick 6 horse racing game on ESPN.com's fantasy sports page. Basically, you try to pick the winning horse in six races being held at various tracks over the weekend. I say I was half-playing because I didn't always remember to make picks.

Up until last week, I had never hit a winner. With what little I know about the day to day world of thoroughbred racing, that didn't surprise me. So I made my picks last week, hit enter, and noticed something odd.

I had picked two horses to win in the same race.

At first I thought it was some sort of mistake, but then realized that, in every other case where this sort of thing happens, ESPN is very good about sending you to an error page. This led me to the rules page, where I learned something very interesting.

For each week, you were allowed 15 picks to spread among the races, to improve the odds of you actually hitting one.

This is information that would have been useful to me during the first couple of weeks in the game, not the next to last week.

I suppose I should be happy that I messed up here and not with something with explosive tendencies, but you think I'd know better by now and read everything.