Winners and Losers
26/08/17 08:11
Holy cow, Goldman Sachs! Did you hear about the woman in Massachusetts who won close to $800 million last week in the lottery? That is a cool $400+ million after taxes if you take the dough in one lump sum (which she did.) Can you imagine? That had to be a WTF moment for that family. We didn't even play the lottery in anticipation of the drawing so we were not invested one way or another. Not in the dreams, not in the money that we could have won, not in the things we might have done had we won. Nothing. I feel bad for the folks who did play and won nothing. Granted, if you only put down a dollar or two hoping for a windfall to come your way it couldn't have been too surprising that you didn't win. The odds are stacked against you from the moment you even think you have a chance to win. But you have to play to lose and you have to play to win. More importantly, you have to play to dream. That's how the game is played. Folks who live in close proximity to the winner or even in that very same state who thought to themselves when they heard that someone from their state won that for the sake of one thing or another it could have been them. The truth of the matter is that the ticket sold in California and the ticket sold in Massachusetts have the same odds of winning. Can someone get me a calculator, please?
But dreams die hard when it comes to cashing in on the big one. I read in the Boston papers today that the police are now patrolling the woman's home after she came forward the other day. It's no wonder. Every nut job, every con man, and every cousin you never knew you had who now think they are entitled to a piece of the action will be coming around. Some of that attraction has to do with celebrity and wanting to snuggle up to the glitter of all that represents. Tabloids will send crews to hound the family, television stations will be looking for their lead story of the week, and the family will go into semi-reclusion to escape it all. I wish them well. One more piece of advice; Keep your wits about you and stay out of the limelight until things quiet down a bit.
The winner is a nurse who has worked the better part of her 30-plus year career in one hospital and who is still young enough to enjoy the fruits of the money she's won. Maybe it's just me but there are winners who are entitled to be winners and then there are others who maybe are less deserving when it comes to cashing in. Certainly, wealthy people who don't need the money probably don't play so don't care one way or another. Then there are folks who have scraped along in a ho-hum job the better part of their lives who for better or worse take a chance now and then and occasionally win a little something. I'm okay with these folks taking home the big prize. Maybe it's small of me to think that some types simply don't deserve to be monumentally lucky. I'm talking about the ne'er do well types who prefer to feed at the public trough rather than take a job and contribute to society in some way. The drug dealers who peddle opiates and sicken or kill those already too weak to compete. The con men and women who play their zero sum game which says that for every winner their must be a loser. They roll the dice with human emotions and cash in on the weak and dispirited. So I'm satisfied as an armchair arbiter in all things lottery related that the baby Jesus picked the right winner this time around. For what it's worth, I agree with him. And, for what it's worth, I'm happy for her.
Now that Nancy has gorged herself on Little League Baseball for the last week and a half it's Evan's turn to use the clicker. Like most others in his generation he is not a television watcher and I know this because I never see him watching television. Whatever he does he does on his cell phone so I suspect he visits some of the more popular venues like YouTube, Netflix, etc to see what he wants to see. As such, he shares nothing and we know nothing. That suits him just fine I suspect. Living under our roof is one thing; maintaining a private life while doing that is quite another. He does his own thing. He is his own man. So it surprised me to hear him talk about the McGregor fight which was planned as a pay-per-view gig on Showtime and which took place last night. I've not known Evan to show any interest in boxing, mixed martial arts, or anything of the sort so I'm guessing he bought into the hype. Maybe his friends were taking it in and he simply got caught up in the excitement. Nonetheless, we know now how it turned out so will plan to watch it today. The fight went 10 rounds so fighting enthusiasts around the globe who paid a pretty penny to watch the event got their money's worth. I told Nancy that it was unlikely to end too soon and each of the fighters probably had explicit instructions from on high to bob and weave their way into later rounds before commencing with the real fighting. Yes, that is what I'm saying. It was fixed. Anyone think for a moment that it wasn't? I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.
But dreams die hard when it comes to cashing in on the big one. I read in the Boston papers today that the police are now patrolling the woman's home after she came forward the other day. It's no wonder. Every nut job, every con man, and every cousin you never knew you had who now think they are entitled to a piece of the action will be coming around. Some of that attraction has to do with celebrity and wanting to snuggle up to the glitter of all that represents. Tabloids will send crews to hound the family, television stations will be looking for their lead story of the week, and the family will go into semi-reclusion to escape it all. I wish them well. One more piece of advice; Keep your wits about you and stay out of the limelight until things quiet down a bit.
The winner is a nurse who has worked the better part of her 30-plus year career in one hospital and who is still young enough to enjoy the fruits of the money she's won. Maybe it's just me but there are winners who are entitled to be winners and then there are others who maybe are less deserving when it comes to cashing in. Certainly, wealthy people who don't need the money probably don't play so don't care one way or another. Then there are folks who have scraped along in a ho-hum job the better part of their lives who for better or worse take a chance now and then and occasionally win a little something. I'm okay with these folks taking home the big prize. Maybe it's small of me to think that some types simply don't deserve to be monumentally lucky. I'm talking about the ne'er do well types who prefer to feed at the public trough rather than take a job and contribute to society in some way. The drug dealers who peddle opiates and sicken or kill those already too weak to compete. The con men and women who play their zero sum game which says that for every winner their must be a loser. They roll the dice with human emotions and cash in on the weak and dispirited. So I'm satisfied as an armchair arbiter in all things lottery related that the baby Jesus picked the right winner this time around. For what it's worth, I agree with him. And, for what it's worth, I'm happy for her.
Now that Nancy has gorged herself on Little League Baseball for the last week and a half it's Evan's turn to use the clicker. Like most others in his generation he is not a television watcher and I know this because I never see him watching television. Whatever he does he does on his cell phone so I suspect he visits some of the more popular venues like YouTube, Netflix, etc to see what he wants to see. As such, he shares nothing and we know nothing. That suits him just fine I suspect. Living under our roof is one thing; maintaining a private life while doing that is quite another. He does his own thing. He is his own man. So it surprised me to hear him talk about the McGregor fight which was planned as a pay-per-view gig on Showtime and which took place last night. I've not known Evan to show any interest in boxing, mixed martial arts, or anything of the sort so I'm guessing he bought into the hype. Maybe his friends were taking it in and he simply got caught up in the excitement. Nonetheless, we know now how it turned out so will plan to watch it today. The fight went 10 rounds so fighting enthusiasts around the globe who paid a pretty penny to watch the event got their money's worth. I told Nancy that it was unlikely to end too soon and each of the fighters probably had explicit instructions from on high to bob and weave their way into later rounds before commencing with the real fighting. Yes, that is what I'm saying. It was fixed. Anyone think for a moment that it wasn't? I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in.