An ambiguous headline. Not good as click bait. I need to work on that.
The headline works with two of today’s topics. First up: tonight’s PowerBall drawing, now reportedly with a $1.5 billion jackpot! Yes, I admit that I spent $6 on three tickets (you’ve got to be in it to win it!), but I think the whole program is flawed.
To win the PowerBall lottery, one must pick five numbers in any order, and the sixth number picked must match the PowerBall number. This is their chart, showing your odds of winning – and the different payoffs available – in PowerBall.
In tonight’s drawing, if you got the five ‘regular’ numbers and the PowerBall pick, you win $1.5 billion. The next prize level down pays only 1 million. And the level below that pays only $50k!
How about spreading the wealth? Why not increase each of those levels 10-fold? How about making a shitload of millionaires instead of one billionaire?
Then the odds of actually getting something wouldn’t be quite so astronomical, and I’d bet that ticket sales would increase.
Just a thought…
The second story was, of course, President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address. For a guy whose biggest strength is his speechifying ability, last night’s seemed to miss the mark. But Digby and I still had plenty about which to discuss on the show today. And she called it in her latest piece for Salon — Obama cited his inability to bring about comity in Congress as one of his big regrets.
And finally, if it’s Wednesday, it’s FloriDUH. Deborah Newell joins me each week for a romp through the FloriDUH swamps. Some of today’s duh stories included
Man thought chase was funny, trooper said
Electronics, EBT card, cell phone stolen from man who reportedly couldn’t afford to pay for sex
and this lovely ditty
Moaning outside Coral Springs bedroom leads to voyeurism charge, cops say
Tomorrow, it’s Driftglass Thursday!! And hopefully Howie Klein too, radio or not!
Shoulda heard Ellen Ratner out on the Paul Ryan thing. Never could make her point, which was probably a good one.