WASHINGTON – Before Nate Silver blogged about politics on his now-famous New York Times blog, FiveThirtyEight, he blogged about burritos.

But this wasn’t just any old burrito blog. This was a sophisticated, systematic blog, run and written in a way reminiscent of FiveThirtyEight, says the The Chicagoist.

The blog, called The Burrito Bracket, was an in-depth analysis of Chicago’s burritos and burrito joints. Not only did it have its own rating system, but it also matched up burritos from competing restaurants, and — like a sports bracket — tested the outcome over time.

The Burrito Bracket rated the burritos themselves on a scale of one to four chile peppers, the presentation, the atmosphere of the restaurant and general value of the burrito.

Silver stopped updating the blog in 2007, but it still exists at burritobracket.blogspot.com.

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