Powerball Execs Stupidly Raise Price to $2 per Line — Hello, Bad Economy, Anyone?
Remember how I said a few days ago that I was having trouble coming up with meaningful blog subjects?
Well, forget that, because today’s blog subject is so easy I’m surprised no one else has taken a whack at it.
Put succinctly: who came up with the idea that Powerball should cost $2 per line rather than $1 in this terrible economy? And why hasn’t that person been fired by now due to this atrocious idea, rather than Powerball being about to institute their new $2-per-line “fee schedule” on January 15, 2012?
As of that date, Powerball will raise its opening jackpot to $40 million (meaning you can never win less than this if you take the multi-year option prize) and will guarantee that you’ll win $1,000,000 if you match five of five numbers (rather than the current $200,000). And they’re touting that the “overall odds” to win a prize will be better — I don’t see it, but whatever — which must be the reasoning they used.
But that is not enough to justify raising the price from $1 to $2 per line, especially as the popular “multiplier” feature is not included — it’s still separate. So if you want to “multiply” your prize, you’ll now have to pay $3 per line rather than $2. While this isn’t as big a jump — because the multiplier feature has remained the same at $1 per line — this is still a jump and most people won’t bother.
Now, as to the reality of why people play Powerball and other lottery games of chance? It’s because we all want to hope for better, and Powerball plays off that in its advertising. The typical Powerball ad says, “With one dollar, you can buy a ticket — and a dream.” And that’s pretty much what you’re buying with regards to Powerball, as the overall odds aren’t that great (view current odds here).
Anyone with half a brain knows that playing the lottery is a fool’s game. You’re better off, really, to bury your dollar in the backyard than you are to play the lottery, yet many people — including myself — do play the lottery mostly because they want to dream about something better. And hey, there’s lots of ways to waste a dollar — so why not?
But when you’re talking about putting $2 down for each ticket rather than only $1, things change. Suddenly, you’re having to pay double the amount of money and that doesn’t seem reasonable — especially as the economy remains awful in many parts of the country, including my own Wisconsin.
Which is why this is such a stupid idea that I really don’t understand why anyone would want to roll this out just past the New Year, especially considering how many people are struggling just to pay for the basics, much less optional luxuries like a lottery ticket.
Here’s what’s likely to happen with regards to Powerball as of 1/15/2012; sales will plummet. Those who have a dollar and a dream will play MegaMillions instead (which draws on Tuesdays and Fridays in many states and has kept its price, sensibly, at $1 per line), or will play their own state’s lottery, or will maybe just save it and bury it in the backyard.
And the reason Powerball sales will plummet is this: the economy is bad. It is brutal. And in the Midwest, where money is at a premium, lottery sales have already gone down — so why do the Powerball execs want to make it even worse?
So if I can see this new “fee schedule” as a non-starter as a regular lottery player who’s spent more than her share of cash on the Powerball over the years, why can’t the Powerball execs?
Oh, yeah. They must not have been hit by the horrible economy, so they actually think there’s enough money out there to do something like this.
I have news for you, Powerball execs: think again. Or watch your business go south. Way south.
Just Reviewed J.M. Frey’s TRIPTYCH at SBR
Folks, if you want to read one of the very best books of 2011, look no further.
Go read my review of J.M. Frey’s TRIPTYCH, which is an outstanding novel of love, sexual politics, aliens, tolerance, and xenophobia — among many other sterling qualities. This reads like something that could actually happen, and is a sensible, logical exploration of our current world as seen by the ultimate outsider (as well as by two insiders).
(Seriously, what are you waiting for?)
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/triptych-by-j-m-frey-among-best-books-of-2011/
Enjoy!
In Praise of Dogs and Cats (Friends, all)
As we’re in the winter doldrums now — caught between two holidays, where everything seems both surreal and pointless — it’s grown harder for me to come up with blog subjects that have some meaning. And thus, might strike a chord with someone else.
But there’s one thing I am always grateful for, and that’s the companionship of my Mom’s three dogs. They’re my friends; they have personalities all their own. Even though they have the typical dog faults — they love food to distraction and will gladly eat themselves sick over and over again, for just one — and they’re not “shining beacons of light,” it’s still a joy to be around them. They enjoy life for what it is: they get fed, they’re warm and out of the cold, they get affection and told they’re loved quite frequently. And they are content.
Lest you think I only feel like this about dogs, think again. Cats, too, are very special creatures. They definitely have personalities, in some ways stronger ones than many dogs. Their reasoning can be easier to follow by human beings — or at least, by me — and while cats can be aloof, if they like you, they let you know it. And they, too, are a joy to be around because they know what’s important: companionship and caring. Anything else just doesn’t register for cats, being profoundly irrelevant to their lives.
I keep thinking what are the most important qualities in a friend, and I think “companionship and caring” about sums it up. This is why pets are so important to many human beings, because it gets harder every day to reach out and keep trying to make a connection with another living soul.
I know that in the strongest human friendships, these same two things — companionship, and caring — are what count the most. Then comes communication — something you don’t need to worry about as much with a cat or dog, as they read nonverbal clues far better than most humans — and shared experiences, among many other things that go into making up a strong friendship with a human being.
Friends are vitally important. In the end, it doesn’t matter so much what kind of friends we have, though it’s much easier for human beings to have a human friend or two as that’s really the best way we have to be fully understood, as a companion animal, no matter how wonderful it might be, cannot reason on a human level. (Nor should it be asked to do so.)
So at this time of year, where it’s cold and dark and dreary over the Northern Hemisphere, do your best to celebrate your friends, near and far. If they’re still alive, tell ’em you appreciate them; if they’re dead, celebrate their lives as best you’re able. And please do remember to pet your cat or dog a few extra times, too. They’ll appreciate it, and it might actually help you out, too.
Just Reviewed Sabrina Jeffries’ “How to Woo a Reluctant Lady” at SBR
Folks, if you enjoy quick, light romances with some snappy dialogue, you’ll enjoy Sabrina Jeffries’ historical romance HOW TO WOO A RELUCTANT LADY as much as I did. But you might still like to take a gander at my review anyway . . . just to be sure.
Enjoy!
Ryan Braun Knows the One, Confirmed Minor-Leaguer Who Successfully Fought 50 Game Ban
Have any of you heard of Brendan Katin?
I hadn’t, at least not for years; he was a prospect in the Milwaukee Brewers minor league system. But Brendan Katin is the one and only person that anyone is aware of who’s actually successfully appealed a 50-game suspension — that is, he cleared his name after he’d falsely tested positive for an elevated level of testosterone.
Well, Ryan Braun knows Katin, something Katin confirms in this article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel by Todd Rosiak on December 19, 2011. Here’s what Katin had to say about his own ordeal:
“We were playing the Smokies in Tennessee this one morning and I wake up to a call from our employee assistance program guy,” Katin recounted in a recent phone interview.
“He just asked me, ‘Is there any reason why you would have tested positive for steroids?’ I answered, ‘Absolutely not. I have absolutely no idea.’ Then he said, ‘Well, you did, and they’re going to suspend you for 50 games.’ ”
Katin wasted no time in contacting his agent and filing an appeal. But from everything he knew, it would be an exercise in futility. A suspension seemed inevitable.
“They’d tell you every time in those meetings in spring training that nobody’s ever won an appeal,” Katin said.
At this point, Rosiak states what little is known about the Ryan Braun situation — something I blogged about here a few weeks ago — and the parallels are eerily similar.
Katin goes on to say this:
Katin, to this day, is believed to be the only player at any level in professional baseball to have won such an appeal. In the major leagues, 12 players on 40-man rosters have taken their cases to arbitration, and all 12 have lost.
Katin was allowed to play as the process dragged on for about two months, but he struggled mightily as he tried to figure out what might have triggered the positive test and what he’d do if the suspension was upheld.
“It was the worst start I had gotten off to in my career. I was hitting .200, if not sub-.200,” he said. “How could I have taken anything that possibly could have caused this? I couldn’t think of anything. At that point in my career, I didn’t even drink protein shakes or anything. Absolutely nothing.”
Katin finally learned he was cleared when he was handed a letter by Huntsville’s trainer as he boarded the bus in Chattanooga, Tenn., for a game. He’d beaten the odds, but the process had taken its toll.
“Pretty much you wake up every day and you tell yourself, ‘I could be suspended tomorrow for 50 games,’ “he said. “I knew that I did nothing wrong, but you’ve got to know that there’s still that chance.”
Katin also said that it was quite difficult for him to deal with the fact that to most, he was guilty until proven innocent — and as Rosiak’s article shows, Katin also suffered greatly in the short-term from the mere perception that he was a cheater.
Aside from that, Katin had only kind words for Braun:
“Completely shocked,” Katin said when asked of his reaction to the news that his friend and former teammate had reportedly tested positive. “He’s as clean-cut a guy as it gets and as classy a guy as it gets.”
In other words, Braun’s test could be a false positive of the sort Katin had happen to him; just because it hadn’t yet happened as far as anyone’s aware in the majors yet, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Tests are handled by humans, thus are inherently flawed, and it is possible that a completely innocent man could be caught in the cross-hairs, just like Katin was back in 2007.
My view remains that Braun is innocent until and unless he is proven guilty, not the reverse — and that I fully expect that Braun will be exonerated.
Just Reviewed Lackey/Edghill’s “Legacies” and “Conspiracies” at SBR
Folks, if you love urban fantasy as much as I do, you really need to grab hold of these novels and don’t let ’em go until you’ve read ’em.
Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill have created a magical academy out in the middle of Montana called Oakhurst that’s both familiar and terrifying. They get all the “teen stuff” right — the “teen speak,” all the emphasis on technology, wanting to eat junk food (and hating healthy food, for the most part), “teen angst,” etc. — and they also manage to get in there a great many hints at mysteries that go back to the Morte d’Arthur . . . really nice work, and I enjoyed both Legacies (book one) and Conspiracies (book two) immensely.
So go read my review already, then go grab the books!
The Topsy-Turvy, Upside-Down NFL: Packers lose, Colts win, and Tebow becomes a “mere mortal”
Today’s slate of National Football League games held high drama, stunning reversals, and at least one game that featured the comeuppance of a highly-touted player, Tim Tebow.
First, the local news: the Green Bay Packers’ bid to go undefeated this season is over. They lost, 19-14, to the Kansas City Chiefs; the Chiefs played a very strong, ball-control offense and didn’t give up any offensive turnovers. Aaron Rodgers, who’s had an outstanding season thus far, had a rather pedestrian game with 235 yards passing, was sacked four times, and even threw one INT (though to be fair, many of his receivers, including TE Jermichael Finley, dropped many well-thrown balls, which is partly why Rodgers’ stat line read 17-35); in fact, NFL retread Kyle Orton, who’s the Chiefs newest QB, had a far better game with 299 yards passing on 23-31 attempts, with no sacks and no INTs.
Read more about the Packers-Chiefs game here; the Packers new record is 13-1, while the Chiefs are at 6-8.
Now, as for the good surprise of the day — the Indianapolis Colts have finally won their first game, trouncing the Tennessee Titans 27-13. Colts starting QB Dan Orlovsky has finally won a game (in his previous seven years in the NFL, Orlovsky was 0-9 as a starter), the Colts have avoided an 0-16 season, and Colts’ fans can finally hold their heads up high after their team played an excellent second half to deny Tennessee (7-7).
Here’s what the Titans’ coach Mike Munchak had to say about it all:
“I never would have expected us to come out, and they’re playing like the team going to the playoffs and we’re the team that’s 0-13,” coach Mike Munchak said. “We just weren’t playing well at all. The intensity wasn’t there at the start.”
That’s why the NFL has its famous saying, that anyone can beat anyone else on “any given Sunday.” Because I agree with Munchak; the Titans still have a chance to go to the playoffs, while the Colts came into this game winless and really had only one halfway decent game all year before this (and they still lost it).
Finally, the New England Patriots did something I never thought they could do: they got me to root for them.
Why is this? Well, it’s simple. I have a hard time with players like Tim Tebow, who seem to believe that God cares whether or not they win football games. (I believe the Deity cares about individuals playing the games, yes. And I think that the Deity probably cares whether the games are “clean” ones, with no dirty play, no gamblers’ interference, and no terrible injuries. But I do not believe any Deity worth His, Her, or Its salt would ever care about who actually wins these games — that’s up to the players, and coaches, and how hard everyone works, and sometimes even whether or not the ball bounces the right way.)
Tebow, you see, is not a prototypical NFL QB. So much has been written about this because Tebow runs as well as passes; he’s far from the first QB to do this, as NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton was famous for this back in the early 1970s, but there’s been so much press about Tebow of the fawning variety that I’ve had it.
So I actually rooted for New England, even though I dislike their team and don’t really care for Tom Brady as a person, either — though of course I admire his play on the field — because the Patriots, to the best of my knowledge, have never had any player whatsoever insist that his ability to play football is “divinely inspired.”**
At any rate, while Tebow did run for two TDs (and looked good doing it), and threw for 194 yards and looked halfway decent doing that (Tebow is left-handed and has an off-kilter throwing motion, though it has improved), the Patriots were by far the better team; this is why the Patriots (11-3) won, 41-23, over the Broncos (8-6). Brady had an excellent day, throwing for 320 yards and completing 23 of 34 passes with two throwing TDs and one rushing TD. (Note that many of the Broncos had “fumble-itis” for most of the second half, which is one reason why Tebow couldn’t perform any of his comeback “mojo.”)
Read more about the Broncos — and Tebow’s — comeuppance here.
As for next week? Who knows what’ll happen in the NFL, other than that there’ll be some great games, some good ones, some stunning upsets and some thrilling comebacks (in no particular order).
—————–
**
Note that Green Bay Packers DE and legend Reggie White (aka “the Minister of Defense”), sometimes did say that God was on his side. But he was a minister. I have a better understanding of why a minister would say this than someone like Tebow, who isn’t. And White didn’t say this from the time he was a rookie, either, nor did he come into the league and insist from the start that God was on his side to the exclusion of everyone else in the league — White believed God was on his side, sure, but he also believed that God had given him the ability to play football so White himself could help determine the outcome on the field along with the other players constituting the Green Bay Packers. (In other words, while White was a Godly man, he believed that football is a team sport. Which, of course, it is.)
I far prefer White’s attitude to Tebow’s, because I understand why someone who believes in God and is an extremely spiritual person (as White was; I met him, once, and there was no doubt) would believe God is everywhere, including on the football field. But I do not understand why any one player like Tebow would believe that God is so much on his side that this is the only reason his team, the Broncos, has won any games whatsoever — that denigrates everyone on the Broncos who isn’t Tebow, and that’s the main reason I really don’t understand Tebow’s attitude.
Just Reviewed Maya Rodale’s “A Tale of Two Lovers” at SBR
Folks, if you like originality and can handle a plot that’s extremely implausible in that it’s all supposedly happening in 1823, you’ll enjoy Maya Rodale’s A TALE OF TWO LOVERS. The writing quality is, overall, quite good. The premise is original. The romance itself between the two lovers, Lady Somerset (a gossip columnist) and Lord Roxbury (a notorious rake that Lady S. has wronged), is fine and often funny.
But I couldn’t get past the implausibility of it all; that there’s one bit of writing that echoes too closely a line from the movie Fight Club didn’t help.
At any rate, here’s the review, where I tried my best to praise the writer for her writing, while pointing out how unlikely any of this would’ve been to happen in 1823, of all times:
Enjoy!
Just reviewed Kevin Sorbo’s autobiography TRUE STRENGTH at SBR
Folks, if you haven’t read Kevin Sorbo’s autobiography TRUE STRENGTH: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal and How Nearly Dying Saved My Life (co-written with his wife, Sam Sorbo), you really should. It’s an excellent memoir, well written, well-thought out, and has enough Hollywood “names” dropped to please any fan. Yet the real purpose of this book is never obscured; as the subtitle says, Sorbo had to deal with a major medical crisis and he nearly died due to many blood clots in one of his arms. During this time, he also found out that he’d suffered three strokes.
And this didn’t happen at a particularly good time, either — not that life-threatening illnesses ever do, mind — because Sorbo was at the height of his fame. He was starring on the TV show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. And he well knew that in Hollywood, fame can be quite fleeting; due to this illness, he had to turn down at least one movie role (a lead role, at that), which just made his overall feelings of helplessness even worse.
Sorbo had no idea if he’d recover or not when all this happened. It was kept very quiet, just how ill he was, and his doctors didn’t have any idea how to help him once his initial arm problems were fixed. So he suffered as anyone who’d nearly died would suffer — he dealt with despair. Depression. Feelings of worthlessness. And as he’d not been with Sam all that long when the health crisis happened, he had to be concerned that she’d maybe not want to stay with him, too.
The upshot of Sorbo’s tale is that he got in touch with the Higher Power. He learned to enjoy his family, his faith, his friends, and value them above his work — because no matter how enjoyable (or lucrative) his TV series was, he was still going to be there at the end of his, providing he survived in the first place. (That’s why he subtitled the book the way he did.)
The way this book is written is refreshing; Sorbo is candid but in a way that doesn’t reveal as much as it seems. His wife, Sam, reveals more in the passages she wrote — what she was thinking at the time, what she noticed about her soon-to-be-husband, and the fact that living through this with him was important to them both.
This is an excellent book, so even if you hate Hollywood and couldn’t stand either of Kevin Sorbo’s TV series (as he also was in Andromeda), you should read it. The quality of the writing is outstanding, as is the craftsmanship. And the overall message — that it’s people who are important, not things (even “things” such as your own profession) — needs to be stated far more often.
Here’s the link to my review:
Have at!
Barb Caffrey's Blog 