Tag: news

You’ve won the lottery… oh, oops…

What would you do first if you won the mega jackpot in the lottery?  300 Danish people were recently told they had won between 1 billion and 280 billion crowns ($49.7 billion), but it turns out they had won only between $35 to $70.  It took an hour and a half to find and correct the mistake.  How would you like to be the lottery director who gets to inform these people of the mistake?

Three hundred Danes believed a dream lifestyle of champagne and caviar awaited them this week after they were announced billionaire lottery winners — until they discovered it was a mistake. …

“Three hundred of our lottery players who won the lottery, the Keno, received a message saying they had won a sum in the billions.  And they never won that amount … We are of course very sorry.  We have now written to them to inform them of the sum that they really won,” Roersig said. …

Roersig said some of the gamers “were disappointed, others were furious and I can fully understand that, but most of them took it well.”

I have a feeling that after all the excitement and jubilation, the words “very sorry” just aren’t much consolation.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be some lawsuits in this scenario.  I figure some of the “winners” already quit their job and starting buying expensive stuff.  The lottery director said he’s considering increasing their winnings to help compensate for their disappointment.  I’m curious how much that would be.

I wonder if any of the “winners” sent an e-mail to their boss saying something along the lines of “take this job and shove it”.  If you know the song by that title, are you singing it yet?  It’s one of those that can get stuck in your head.  If you aren’t familiar with it, it was a #1 hit in 1978, written by David Allan Coe and covered by Johnny Paycheck.

Anyway, I also wonder how many of those people later sent an e-mail to their boss saying “I’ve always appreciated your ability to take a joke” or “My computer got a virus and sent these crazy e-mails to everyone”.  🙂

If you aren’t familiar with that song or haven’t heard it in a while, it’s (of course) all over the YouTube.  But here’s one version I remember seeing from the Dukes of Hazzard, where Johnny Paycheck got caught in one of Boss Hogg’s infamous celebrity speed traps and thus had to sing at The Boar’s Nest.  Classic stuff here…

Boss’ reactions to the main hook are awesome.  That’s one of the best TV shows of all time.

I wonder how many people have written about the lottery and the Dukes of Hazzard at the same time…  🙂

new Darwin Award nominee

There is no shortage of contestants for the annual Darwin Awards.  If you aren’t familiar with them, it’s a list of people who do incredibly stupid stuff that gets them killed.  I don’t keep up with it regularly, but I just heard about what will surely be an entry for 2012.

A man in North Carolina drank some gasoline and then smoked a cigarette.  You’d think common sense would apply, but it didn’t.  Also, somehow he made it to 43 years old.  The man was at a friend’s apartment when he apparently mistook a jar of gasoline sitting by the kitchen sink for a beverage.  Later, he went outside to smoke and burst into flame.

That’s about all the details in the news article, but it leaves so much to question.  Here’s what I immediately think of:

1) Did he not smell the gasoline before he drank it?
2) Why was a jar of gasoline by the kitchen sink?
3) Why wouldn’t he go to the hospital after drinking gasoline?
4) Shouldn’t he have realized gasoline is highly flammable and thus smoking would be really dangerous?

If you have any potential answers to those questions, feel free to leave a comment…

Occupy Denver elected dog as leader

If he could wield a lightsaber, maybe...

For a while the “occupy” movement was getting a lot of attention, with people camping out in city parks and such.  I figure there are valid points to be made, but some of them are hard to take seriously.  For example, the Occupy Denver movement elected a Border Collie to be its leader.  The dog’s owner was inspired to do this by a speech from Michael Moore.

That’s all I know about the story, and I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to know more.  I don’t know that more details would make it more intelligible…

I just don’t get it.  Is that supposed to make some statement?  What kind of message are they giving?  Are they begging for handouts / treats?

taking your pet to church

I heard there’s a church that lets you bring your pets to service now.  Apparently it’s been good for their attendance, but I have to wonder if they ever asked themselves: WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?  Seems like there’s quite a few potential issues, and by “potential” I mean likely will happen.  Let’s look at a couple of scenarios.

1) Animals like to explore and smell things.  So they’re going to want to wander around.  Not only would that be a distraction, but it would lead to #2.

2) Fighting.  Are cats and dogs going to suddenly get along because they’re in church?  I doubt it.  It’ll end up like a Looney Tunes episode where the dog is chasing Sylvester, who is chasing Tweety Bird.  It makes for a funny cartoon, but not so great in real life, especially during something as important as a church service.

3) Animals poop.  Well, to be fair, humans do too, but we usually go to a bathroom for such things.  It would be a huge distraction to have animals urinating and pooping all over the place.  Even if you had litter boxes, some indoor pets aren’t housebroken.  (I know, that seems inconceivable, but I know someone who keeps a dog inside who isn’t housebroken. I just don’t understand.)  Either way, poop is distracting, as well as unsanitary.

I could go on, but I figure that’s enough reasons why you wouldn’t allow people to bring their pets to church with them.  What do you think?