". . .with plenty o' money and you-ooh-ooh." So go the lyrics of an old song from the early days of the last century. (Not that yours fooly was around back then; I only know it from watching old movies.) But the tune has lately come to mind with news in the U.S. of an astronomically-large Powerball lottery prize, as of this writing $1.5 billion with a "b," reportedly the largest jackpot in history.
The buzz around this phenomenon has also broken records in lottery ticket sales. The odds of winning are similiar to yours fooly having a story published in The New Yorker: 292 million to one. Despite the forbidding chances of hitting, every single soul who bought a ticket hundreds of 'em believes he or she is going to win.
Sometimes when you think you're holding the magic ticket in your hand, it suddenly vanishes in a puff of fairy dust, as was the sorry fate of the poor British couple brought down by a computer malfunction. As we say around our neck o the woods, "You don't really have the money until the check is in your hand"-- or to be on the safe side, when the check has cleared the bank and you've got the cash in your hand.
Regardless of all the things that can go wrong, somebody might wake up tomorrow morning on East Street.
So, tell me, NitLetters, do you feel lucky?
What would you do if you had 1.5 billion* smackeroos?
*After taxes, of course
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