Ticket to ride

Having already won two big lotteries (draft and marriage), I never play along with state lotteries, but I understand one thing about them: what you're buying for your bucks is more than the chance at taking home a huge pile of loot.

You get to fantasize about it! You dream of being in a huge vault filled with gold coins, like Scrooge McDuck, and being rich enough to light your Cuban cigars with lighted $20 bills that you light by setting fire to $50 bills.

And just look at how happy superrich people are! I mean, behold the sheer bliss that a mountain of moolah has brought this anonymous New York couple:


They look delighted, am I wrong?

I dunno. Maybe the idea of winning the Buckets O' Bucks is even better than actually winning it?

I want you to meet Fred Dove of Warrenton, Virginia. Fred won a million dollars in the 20X the Money lotto, and then he held onto his winning ticket for two months so he could get his ducks in a row.

Fred bought the winning ducat at his local Shell station, but then he kept it in his pants for sixty days while he absorbed his new reality.



"I was so excited, but I needed to plan," Dove told Virginia Lottery officials. "I needed to get my thoughts together."

AND he wanted to finish some work - he's a handyman - for some clients before hanging up his hammer and saw for now.

Then and only then did he trot on over to lottery headquarters, ankling out with the lump sum option for his prize, which came out to $657,030 before taxes.

Hey. He's cautious, not insane.  Good luck, Fred D. Dove! I have a feeling you have some interesting times ahead of you.