Tikkabik

During one of my aborted attempts at higher education, I had a statistics teacher who talked briefly about the infinitesimal probability of winning a lottery, and promptly judged the whole exercise a "tax on the stupid."

In retrospect, I completely understand what she was telling us. But I still think her analysis is probably one of the more unimaginative statements uttered by any of my teachers over the years.

The Mass. State Lottery's Big Game Mega Millions jackpot is up around $115 million for its next drawing. Over the weekend it was tipping at about $95 million, I think. No one's won in a while.

My wife's cousin Sarah and her husband Igal were over the house this weekend. He'd bought a single ticket just for shits and grins. I'd forgotten, but we talked about it anyway.

"Forget the annuity, and take the cash option. You'd end up with about $30, maybe $40 million," said Igal. "Even if you just stuck the balance in a savings account pulling in a meager 1 percent, you'd pull about 300 grand a year."

He shook his head and added, "I don't know about you, but I could live quite comfortably on 300 grand a year. And that's not even TOUCHING the principal."

Igal and I then spent a good half-hour fantasizing about what we'd do with the money -- investing some, giving some to friends and family, quitting our day jobs, buying "toys" like cars, boats and houses in cash, taking trips.

Let me restate this: Igal spent $1. The two of us spent half an hour in rapturous fantasy about what to do with the winnings. 50 cents each for a half an hour of fun.

When you compare that to what it would cost to go to the movies or even rent a movie from Blockbuster, buy a video game for a PlayStation2 or even break down the cost per hour of buying a beach sticker, it's a damn good return on investment.

Sure, it's a short-lived thing, until the next drawing, but who cares? It's fun.