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Did you play Powerball last weekend? Do you intend to play? Have you ever played the lottery? Did you win?
There was no winner in this past weekend’s Powerball drawing, with a jackpot worth an estimated $900,000,000.00.
This Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot is estimated to be $1.3 billion. Powerball fever is alive and has even caught ahold here at Daily Kos including the comment section of yesterday’s C!U!A! post.
I did not play Powerball on Saturday nor do I plan to play in Wednesday’s drawing. But at times like these, I do think of my own fairly innocuous history with various forms of gambling, including the lottery.
Many of my family members were (and are) recreational gamblers. As far back as I can remember, I was often in tow to a card-party or even to various bingo halls in both the United States and across the Detroit River in Canada. (perhaps one or two family members crossed the line into habitual gambling, but there are no gambling addicts that I know of).
In fact, my fondest gambling memory dates from when I was 7 years old.
Mom her best friend decided to go to a bingo hall in Windsor, Canada called the Tivoli Arena. There were almost about 300 people in the bingo hall that night. Mom handed me one of her bingo cards and a bingo dabber simply so I could calm down and leave her alone. So I dabbed the card; the numbers caller, as I recall, was fast but not so fast that I couldn’t keep up. The $25 prize for a line came and went and I steadily dabbed my card hoping to win the prize for the full card, $50. I finally needed only one number to bingo and, being the independent young man that I was, decided that if the number that I needed was called, I could do it on my own.
You know what happened next.
After about five numbers, my bingo number was called and I raised my hand and said, “Bingo!”
To this day, I recall the number of faces (mostly white) that turned and faced me at that moment, some of the mouths (including Mom’s) agape with envy (and shock, I suppose).
They sent some shaggy-haired dude up who looked as surprised as the rest of the bingo hall patrons that he was about to “call off” the bingo numbers of this seven-year old kid. Sure enough, he affirmed that it was a good bingo.
Then, they sent a different dude up and called my numbers off again. Again, it was affirmed that it was a good bingo. (Mom and I have slightly different memories on this. She says now that the numbers were not called off a second time and that “the different dude” gave her the $50. She may be right to the extent that the numbers were not called off a second time but I recall my bingo card receiving an extensive review a second time only because a second person joined “a different dude.” It’s possible that after this second review, the “different dude” gave Mom her winning, which she says was his designated job.) Mom received her $50 winnings and gave me $10.
Not bad for a few minutes work!
A few days later, my Mom returned to the Tivoli Arena with her apparent new good luck charm and before we entered the door, there was a sign on the door that said that children under 16 were no longer permitted admission to the bingo hall. Mom later said that several (though not all) of the Windsor bingo halls adopted a similar rule around that time. (I double-checked this part story with Mom and she did confirm that nearly all of the bingo halls in Windsor adopted the “no one under 16 rule” within a month of the event I narrated.)
While nearly everyone in the family played the lottery at one point or another, but the lottery was my grandmother’s form of gambling entertainment. While Granny did not play the lottery everyday, she always listened or watched for the Michigan lottery drawings and would faithfully do her “numbers rundown.” A quick Wikipedia check shows that the state of Michigan began doing drawings of the Daily 3 in 1977 but my brother has some of Granny’s numbers rundown books in his possession from a time earlier than that and I have memories of Granny doing her numbers rundown long before 1977 (and yes, I know what that means). There is a bit of a family legend that says it was because of my intense observation of Granny doing her numbers rundown that I learned to count at a very very early age and I have the faintest of memories as (possibly) a two-year old climbing up over her on the bed to watch Granny do the rundown.
To my knowledge, numbers rundown systems vary but basically, Granny’s system was a version of this system, which seems to use basic addition and subtraction by 1s, 2s, and 3s. Granny also utilized a tic-tac-toe system in some way; to this day, her system seems more difficult than differential calculus, lol.
And don’t dare to tell Granny that you had a dream the night before; she wanted to know all about it because as a back-up system, Granny faithfully used a Lucky Red Devil Dream Book.
Before launching into my sparse gambling career as an adult, I should mention that I found my own little niche as a football prognosticator when I was 10 years old.
For much of the 1977 football season I picked football games here and there but I remember seething with rage when this 10-year old little snot got on the NFL Today and was predicting all of NFL games of that day (I’ve looked all over YouTube for video of the little snot from that 12/11/1977 showing of the NFL Today and I’ve never found it...I have always wondered how the little snot’s life wound up). I seethed with rage as I knew that I was better than he was at predicting games although I agreed with him that the Bert Jones-led Baltimore Colts would beat the usually hapless Detroit Lions. But late in that game, I did predict that the Lions would block a punt and score to win the game; the Lions (uncharacteristically) did exactly that. For the next 5-7 years, I painstakingly predicted all college and professional football games, using my own point spreads and measured myself against Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. Several years, I actually did have a better record at predicting games than he did; my uncle got into the habit of bringing football betting sheets home from his job at Chrysler and would give them to me to fill out.
As I became an adult, I pretty much put gambling to the side. While I do enjoy the occasional card game, I almost always play among close friends and family and rarely for money. I hardly ever play the lottery with the exception of the occasional purchase of a scratch ticket. I’ve been to the casinos in Indiana twice during the 20+ years that I lived in Chicago. I’ve been to the OTB parlor twice. I will admit that I still do look at the point spreads for the football games (Alabama will win tonight but take Clemson and the 6.5 points and the over...for recreational purposes, only!)
Still, for old times sake, I might play a QuickPick or two for the Powerball this Wednesday I could use the money and I have a decent idea of what I may spend some of the money on. But...that story is for another time.
What was your last gamble?
Community Building Updates
State Open Threads
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Washington: Sundays, 3:30 PM Pacific
Events Currently Scheduled
Join Tennesseans across the state to take action for Insure Tennessee. We need to show our legislators that we haven’t gone away, and that we expect them to pass Insure Tennessee this year. We care about the 280,000 Tennesseans that are suffering without health care coverage, we are concerned for the health of hospitals in rural communities and beyond, and we want our federal tax dollars to come back to our state. Two events are scheduled. RSVP here.
January 11, 2015 at 5:30 PM — Vigil and Luminaries on the steps of the Capitol. Come stand with us as we honor those who are in the coverage gap, and pray for our legislators to make the right decision. Invite your friends to the Facebook event here!
January 12, 2015 at 10:00 AM — Stand Up for Insure Tennessee at Legislative Plaza, Nashville. Take action on the Hill. Invite your friends to the Facebook event here! More information about connecting with the local readers of Daily Kos here at ZenTrainer’s diary: Hey Nashville, want to register some voters?
The NYC Kossacks are meeting for lunch on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 at Noon at Spitzer's Corner - 101 Rivington Street, cross street Ludlow. Meet in the back room. This venue is wheelchair accessible. More information at kathny’s announcement diary. There will be fries.
RSVPS:
1. kathny
2. belinda ridgewood
3. ericlewis0
4. aeou
5. rubyr
6. sidnora
7. joanbrooker
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Maybees:
basket
Its the Supreme Court Stupid
Avilyn
Laura Clawson
Mets102
mconvente
mattc129
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Motor City Kossacks will host a meet-up on January 18th at 10 AM at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Lunch afterwards. Special exhibit: Admission to 30 Americans is free to residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. January 18th is the last day of this special exhibit.
RSVPS:
1. 2thanks
2. BFSkinner
3.
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Maybees:
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More information here.
Strategy meeting to convene for the Mass Moral March on Raleigh.
Saturday, Jan. 30th, 1:00 PM at:
The Block off Biltmore
39 S. Market Street, Asheville, NC 28801
(Corner of Eagle & Market)
Directions (Google Maps)
Kosmail randallt to reserve you a seat. More information here.
RSVPS:
1. randallt
2. Joieau
3. davehouck
4. Lamont Cranston
5. Gordon20024
6. DawnN
7. Otteray Scribe
8.
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Maybees:
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH
TRIANGLE KOSMOPOLITANS JOIN THOUSANDS IN THE 10TH ANNUAL MASS MORAL MARCH ON RALEIGH & HKONJ PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY GET-OUT-THE-VOTE GATHERING AND MOBILIZATION
TIMES and LOCATIONS:
Pre-rally — 9:00 AM Corner of Wilmington and South Streets near Shaw University
March — 10:00 AM to the State Capitol on Fayetteville Street • Raleigh
ORGANIZER: RSVP at Facebook to bolster their numbers!
Look for the Daily Kos — Forward Together, Not One Step Back signs to march with the Triangle Kosmopolitans!
Send a kosmail to the local Triangle Kosmopolitans or state group North Carolina Blue to connect with other readers of Daily Kos for future events.
Registration and hotels still available
Cheers & Jeers Welcoming Dinner Wednesday, July 13, 2016 Time: TBD, early evening, 5-ish or 6-ish Location: TBD, near Convention Center
Roll call for the C&J Dinner in Connect! Unite! Act! This will be the headcount for the C&J Dinner. Spread the word.
RSVPS:
1. navajo
2. Meteor Blades
3. Bill in Portland Maine
4. Common Sense Mainer
5. jotter
6. aha aha (Mrs. jotter)
7. side pocket
8. Mrs. side pocket
9. paradise50
10. smileycreek
11. Chris Reeves
12. Ramara
13. loggersbrat
14. Justice Putnam
15. theRoaringGirl
16. winkk
17. jakedog42
18. vicki
19. markm667
20. brillig (bday gurl that day!)
21. mik
22. K1
23. K2
24. Eddie in ME
25. moody in savannah
26. lulu
27. texasmom
28. texasdad
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Maybees:
norm winifred3
normAl1792
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There will also be a Daily Kos Caucus session during NN16. Stay tuned for date and time.
Event Reporting
While visiting Boston, belinda ridgewood invited TrueBlueMajority to her annual Boxing Day holiday party and it became a meet-up of two Kossacks! Yay! In the meantime, an impromptu gathering occurred in NYC consisting of the Saturday Morning Garden Bloggers, Kishik, Missys Brother and Christin. Go NYC!
Houston Area Kos met on 11/24/15 for community fortitude and basic camaraderie. A good time was had by all. If you’d like to connect with other readers of Daily Kos in the Houston Area, please kosmail Chrislove, he’ll send you an invite.
navajo maintains the above event list. Kosmail her if you have any diaries about your event or if you have changes or additions.
This is an open thread. Nothing is off topic.