Back in the swing of things

Wasn't I just writing about living long with equanimity? This should not be taken to mean that I shall refrain from skewering the stupidity that springs eternal (a phenomenon alluded to here). It's just too much fun.

Take for example a recent Powerball writeup in USA Today, "The Nation's Coloring Book." The article appeared due to the growing size of the jackpot, estimated at about $340 million. I'll gloss over the propriety of this government revenue source for now, for unlike most, at least in this case (1) participation is optional, and (2) there is an easily quantifiable probability of realizing tangible benefit in exchange for your money. What other government money-grabs offer these advantages?

No, what drew my attention was this part:

Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, said hundreds of ticket buyers had played a set of numbers from the ABC drama "Lost," which featured a character who won $156 million by playing a string of digits obtained from a patient in a mental institution: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.

This same phenomenon is written up in a dedicated article here, which adds:

According to a Wisconsin Lottery spokeswoman, more than 840 people selected those numbers across five states during last week's Powerball drawing, including 266 in New Hampshire alone.

Perhaps you can tell from my selective quotations where I'm heading, but these thoughts don't seem to occur to the article writers or the Powerball ticket purchasers. It's weird enough to plunk down a dollar on a one-in-146-million-chance of netting the nine-figure jackpot (less taxes). You can rationalize it as an entertainment expenditure or as an almost-break-even venture in the long run if the jackpot's high enough. Fine. But what I find sand-poundingly asinine is paying a dollar for the same 1 / 146,000,000th chance of winning just 0.12% of the jackpot. Why would you do that? Stupid!! Did these people think that nobody else in the entire country would play the numbers from the highly-rated, nationally broadcast prime-time television show? Did each one of these hundreds upon hundreds of people think that they were the only ones clever enough to play these numbers? Sheeesh!

If we could somehow get an address list of the people who used the "Lost" numbers for Powerball, we could sell that list at a steep premium to salesmen nationwide. Because these are the people you can hit with the craziest offers. Given the option to buy equal chances at $340 million or $400 thousand, they chose the four hundred thousand. It's like knowing beforehand that there's a donkey behind door number three, and going ahead and picking door three anyway.

Imagine for a moment what these rants will be like when I'm actually old....