Monday, September 14, 2009
You can't win if you don't play, but I still have my dollar. Do you?
Just The Facts
- The odds of winning a Mega Millions Jackpot are 175,000,000 to one.
- The odds, as an American Male, of being Tom Cruise are only 150,000,000 to one.
- You are more likely to call heads twice, roll a six and then be struck by lightning than win a regular 6/49 lottery.
Via jwz, Lottery | Cracked.com
That (and the rest of the article) is pretty much why I don't play the lottery.
I also don't gamble. I learned the “if, at a poker table, you can't spot the sucker, it's you” lesson the hard way back in college (nothing like losing an entire paycheck in a “friendly” game).
(As a digression—growing up, I preferred Mad over Cracked, which I found to be a weak imitation of Mad. But these days, the Cracked website is lightyears better than the Mad website.)
Update on Tuesday, Debtember 5th, 2017
For some reason, John Hawthorne thinks this post is pro-lottery. I want to make it clear it's not.
“Star Surfs”
I'm earwormed.
Not with Why is Captain Kirk Climbing a Mountain (link via kisrael.com), although I find it rather catchy, but with (to me) this 60s surf movie (or maybe western—it's got elements of both) rendition of the Star Wars theme (link via news from me). I can also imagine Quentin Tarantino using this in one of his films.
