PLAYING THE LOTTERY

If you're a ticket holder in a the multi-state Powerball Lottery, you have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning.

If you win -- wow -- you could transform your home into a palace, buy a car, give money to relatives, take an around-the-world trip dressed in fabulous clothes and bring your friends with you ... hey, if I won, I could run ads on TV for my novels, ads in the Sunday Times!!!

I've gleaned from researching, that it's better NOT to pick numbers between 1- 31 -- your important dates like birthdays and anniversaries aren't as good as higher numbers. And even if you don't win the jackpot biggie, you can still win. Last year $2 billion worth of prizes went unclaimed, including 114 worth $1 million or more.

I've always thought of playing the lottery as a lower class, dumb thing to do. Okay, lots of things are dumber -- like watching six TV ads between every five minutes of a hit TV show. Anyhow, less educated folks spend more on tickets than the rich. Experts have said, "People earning less than $25,000 spend about $583 a year on the lottery; guys who earn $100,000, spend $289 a year; college dropouts spend about $700; people with degrees only $178."

In an article in The Week magazine, Dr. George Lowenstein, head of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University said, "Playing the lottery is a chance to escape the humdrum reality of everyday life. It’s a cheap way to buy a license to fantasize.”

Hey, with lottery news blending in with the daily dose of what President Trump's planning for the country -- I must say fantasizing about a win keeps you chirpy hopeful.

My husband, John Cullum and I are going to buy six lottery tickets. Game wizards say six is better. Also, when you're putting your name in a hat with millions of other folks, BUY 'em the moment the lottery's announced. You get more for your money -- win or lose, you get a few months of lovely daydreams.

Yep, during the next few months John and I will be dreamy dancing.

(VIDEO) JOHN CULLUM TALKS WITH HIS DAD

January is often the time to reflect on the past, and remember the people you love who are gone.

Emily wonders what John would say to his father if he could, about working as an actor nowadays, and how the world has changed. 

Enjoying the topic, John explains how his relationship with his father continues to echo, and affect him every day.

FIXING WHAT? WHEN? HOW?

We've been hearing in dribs and drabs, about major, essential things seriously deteriorating -- infrastructure that urgently needs fixing.

I read a scary article, then another, avoiding stuff I didn't understand -- my ability to tolerate bad news is at an all time low. But now -- January -- right now is the time to look at things clearly, toughly, and perceive what's ahead.  

WASTE -- garbage, recycling -- what we're doing with it, what we need to do to fix the problem would cost $56 billion.

RAILROADS -- just to fix the rails between Boston and DC -- $10 billion.  (No money numbers about fixing troubled rails between other major cities, but I dug up this list of the 50 major cities -- all have seriously deteriorating railroad connections.) Multiply by 10 -- give or take a couple of $bill. here and there -- $500 billion?

BRIDGES -- last time estimated was in 2010, when fixing deficient bridges was -- $106 billion.

ELECTRIC GRID -- to make us secure between now and 2025, the government needs to spend  $934 billion.

ROADS --  fix, upgrade, maintain them the FHA (Federal Highway Administration) needs $170 billion.

... Billions -- what's happened? "Time Magazine" said in 1965, just for transportation and water, we used to spend 6 % of the national budget. Now we're spending maybe 2.7 %....

LEVEES -- designed to protect farmland, they're currently used to protect residential areas where the risk of flooding is a major concern -- fixing -- $100 billion.

DRINKING WATER --  90% of the country depends on old public water systems that last 75 to 120 years. The EPA (Environment Protection Agency) estimated in 2011 that maintaining or replacing pipes, treatment plants, storage tanks and other assets over the next 20 years will cost $384 billion.

AIRPORTS -- mostly rely on a 1960s radar system. FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has been rolling out a new air-traffic control system since 2007 -- fixing over the next 10 years will cost $32 billion.

Yowie-owie-wow -- add up the red money numbers, the time it's gonna take, the problems -- it's a billion, trillion, centillion big and little things to fix, change, update. Golly-gee -- I hope the  guys who will be running the country, know how to hold back a Tsunami.

KILL KILLER ADS

Google has been spreading like a puddle, seeping into every aspect of our lives.

It controls our YouTube channel, our email, my blogs, my searches -- whenever I search, ads for what I searched for magically appear on any page I'm on -- ads echoing where I searched for a broom, maid, name, organization, machine, exercise, historical tidbit, even a word -- it's a cobweb of eyes perceiving my need for medicines, apps, gizmos -- every kind of this-or-that for every aspect of my life.

The other day I read about Ad-free Youtube Red for kids. Whoopee! Mentally, I jumped up and was dancing around till I read the finer print: For $10 a month on your kiddie's channel, you make ads go away, though watchdogs claim Red inserts "love me-buy me" flashing pix, in kids' videos.

I ain't dancing. I'm grieving, searching for a bigger, louder way of expressing what I feel ads are doing to us.


Drowning us?

Yep.

Even if you close your eyes tight, and cover your ears, ads are constantly trickling into the heart, the lungs, the blood stream because everyday we breathe in ad-poisoned air.

Ads are worse than global warming that will destroy our planet. Ads are destroying us, our minds, our sense of right and wrong, our ambitions, dreams, hungers, passions -- ads are there, hovering, waiting, anywhere, everywhere, wherever you are even if your eyes are closed -- ads-ads-ads are night and day a monstrously continual presence.

How many ADS do we see watching TV? Maybe 300 to 700 marketing messages per day, depending on what you watch or listen to. We can maybe, probably, sort of stop ads, if we buy DVR recorders that skip ads, or buy MythsTv, Ads By Name software and maybe, probably, sort of figure out how to use it. 

Hey, guys, turn 'em off -- don't listen, don't look, beware of all fun, interesting, well-advertised products, don't buy -- that's the way to kill them.

THIS   IS   US!!!!!!!!

Kill or be killed.