I haven’t decided if I’m going to buy a lottery ticket for the Mega Millions drawing. Probably depends on whether I’m in a vendor’s business before Friday’s drawing. I will do so from time to time, never more than $3 worth, maybe $5. A friend of mine says, “What does a dream cost?” And as everyone else says, “You gotta play to win.”
Imagine winning that much money. I’d take the lump sum of course, and try to keep my name as quiet as possible. Soon you’d see some changes around here, though. I’d bestow large sums on my friends and family members, of course. Do some fun stuff, like…charter a private jet to some fabulous destination and invite cool people to come aboard. Buy Alan a bigger boat, or maybe a house on a great trout stream. Give lots to charity. (If all these things happen, you’ll know I won.) And I would, of course, set up some sort of trust to keep the pile away from moochers.
Like? Oh, like the Rev. Leroy Jenkins.
You Central Ohioans of a certain age remember Leroy, as shifty and grifty a preacher as ever stood in a pulpit, although for some reason I don’t know that he was much for pulpits – he was the kind of guy who preached in drive-ins. His Wikipedia entry is a font of hilarity:
Jenkins was known for his faith healing, through the use of “miracle water”. In 2003, while based in Delaware, Ohio, Jenkins’ “miracle water,” drawn from a well on the grounds of his 30-acre religious compound known as the Healing Waters Cathedral, was found to contain coliform bacteria by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Jenkins claimed tests conducted by independent laboratories all found the water safe for drinking and that the state ignored his findings. Jenkins was later fined $200 because he didn’t have a license to sell the water.
More? Sure:
In 1979, Jenkins was convicted in Greenwood, South Carolina, of conspiracy to assault two men and of plotting the arson of two homes. Jenkins was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with eight years suspended, for the incident. In 1994, he was arrested for grand theft, but the charges were soon dropped when he agreed to pay restitution.
What does he have to do with the lottery? Only this:
In 2001, his marriage to a 77-year-old widow, a black woman who had recently hit the Ohio Lottery jackpot for $6,000,000, was annulled by a judge in Delaware, Ohio. The legal guardian of Eloise Thomas, whose husband had died just three weeks before the marriage to Jenkins, former Ohio state senator Ben Espy, claimed on behalf of the woman’s family that Thomas was incompetent and therefore incapable of knowing what she was doing when she attempted to marry Jenkins. Jenkins has repeatedly denied accusations that he was attempting to marry the woman for the sake of her net worth, which was estimated at $4,000,000.
That was an amazing story. As I recall, the woman was in a wheelchair, and Leroy was a good decade younger, although it was hard to tell, as he was one of those men who kept his hair Elvis-black until the very end. Ben Espy, the woman’s lawyer/guardian, was a former OSU football star and Columbus city councilman who lost a leg sometime in the ’80s, when the cornice of a building downtown abruptly gave way and fell onto the street below, where Espy was unfortunately walking. What a day that was in the ol’ newsroom.
Anyway, that was the kind of stunt that, shall we say, led the good reverend’s obituary when he died in 2017. Columbus Monthly did a pretty good later-in-life profile called “Leroy Jenkins starts over,” with a detail most forgot: The wedding was performed in Las Vegas. Naturally.
I will not be marrying Leroy, or any of his kin, should I claim the prize.
Now to lay low for a few days. Covid is tearing through my community again, and as I am still a Novid, so to speak, I absolutely do not want to get it. Election is next week and I’m hitting the road for a little driving trip afterward. I’ll be packing masks and tests and staying outdoors as much as possible. Have a great weekend, however you are testing at the moment, and I’ll be back toward the end of it.
Jeff Borden said on July 28, 2022 at 5:23 pm
If I lacked a conscience and a sense of morality, I’d become a preacher. You’re selling a product no one can ever see, feel, taste, smell or touch. You’re protected by the First Amendment and can operate tax free. Politicians will bow to you in hopes they might reap votes from your congregation. It would be a pretty sweet gig, but I’d feel terrible about separating dolts from their money.
We’re unlikely to win a lottery since we never buy a ticket, but are in the process of making sure some of our less fortunate friends will be taken care of when we pass via trusts. Some charities too, of course, but we’re opting for more localized operations concentrating on violence and literacy.
694 chars
Deborah said on July 28, 2022 at 5:27 pm
It’s at $1.1 billion at this point, I think I’m buying a couple of tickets tomorrow before 11pm. I’d take the lump sum which might be about half a billion but lordy that’s way more than plenty. I’d give a lot of it away, but what my husband has found out being a trustee for his uncle’s trust, it’s actually harder to give money away than you’d think. MacKenzie Scott, Bezo’s ex does it well but she can’t give it away fast enough, she makes almost more from investments than she gives away each year.
LB and I are fantasizing what we would do with it now.
557 chars
David C said on July 28, 2022 at 5:34 pm
If I remember correctly, in Michigan you can stay anonymous. You can’t in Wisconsin. I imagine it’s a big deal with a big-assed check to let the moochers and flim-flam men get a head start on you. Since I could buy my way into most anywhere I’d high tail it to Ireland for the summer and Spain or Portugal for the winter and let them try to find us.
Other than that it’s airshow week here in Oshkosh. Right now the fighters are flying over the house and scaring the bejesus out of the cats. It’ll be over Monday and it’s Christmas in July for the local businesses so fine. But I’m as glad to see them go as I am to have them here.
633 chars
LAMary said on July 28, 2022 at 5:41 pm
I had fighter jets flying over for the Home Run Derby and the All Star Game last week. The spooky looking stealth bomber flew over for opening day.
I already decided that one thing I would do if I won the lottery is give a lot of it to LA Unified School District for arts and music programs and to provide school nurses at all locations. A billion bucks could fund that for while. One of my kids had asthma as a child and every time he had an attack at school I had to give permission for the school secretary to give him is inhaler. Bring back school nurses. They find lice infestations, identify abused kids, use an epipen if some kid is allergic to bee stings or peanuts.
675 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 28, 2022 at 6:18 pm
Since we’re morally opposed to gambling, I’d hate to get caught winning. Won’t happen since we never play.
For every jerk pastor like Leroy Jenkins there are 100 like our daughter. She earns almost nothing and spends most of her time in direct pastoral contact counseling, doing social work, taking parishioners to the hospital and then lots of meetings.
Right now she’s organizing a school supply drive. The list of what the kids need would probably cost $100-150 apiece. Not just crayons and pencils; they have to bring their own headphones, clorox wipes, dry erase board and marker, stapler, notebooks and paper/graph paper, a ream each of printer paper, colored printer paper, and colored card stock. And of course kleenex, quart & gallon zip bags, colored pencils and markers, on and on and on. Backpacks, tennis shoes, gym uniform, and there’s 15 more items on the list.
If you’ve bought any of these things recently, you know that just like food the cost has risen exponentially. The families that come are so grateful, and no doubt their teachers are too, since they typically supply missing items with their own money.
1141 chars
MarkH said on July 28, 2022 at 6:21 pm
I had one or two contacts with Jenkins back around 1979 when I sold airtime at WMNI in Columbus, which ran his radio show. Seeing him in person was rather creepy. He would remind us that his name was pronounced ‘luh-ROY’.
225 chars
Deborah said on July 28, 2022 at 6:53 pm
I would get great satisfaction by calling Jenkins Leeeeeeroy.
61 chars
alex said on July 28, 2022 at 7:40 pm
I’d pay $1.1 billion not to have the grief that comes with such a shitload of money, like not knowing who your friends are anymore and getting cold-called endlessly by swindlers and salesfolk. I’ve read nothing but horror stories about what happens to big lottery winners.
272 chars
Peter said on July 28, 2022 at 8:34 pm
Years and years ago, when the Illinois Lottery had an unheard of jackpot of 40 million, everyone at work bought a ticket and dreamt big.
What would I have done with the money? Easy – buy a sports team:
– you get the owner’s box and the best parking spot for all games
– you can get your name in the paper any time you want (just ask the former owner of the New Jersey Generals)
– those parties at the annual meetings must be the stuff of legend
– and, when you’re bored, you sell the team and get all of your money back, plus a healthy profit (except for the former owner of the New Jersey Generals).
This just shows how out of whack we’ve become. In 1985, you could have bought the White Sox (last sold for $20 million) or the Bulls (14 million) on a lump sum and still have a few dollars left. With a 1.1 billion payout over 20 years? Keep dreaming – the Bulls are now worth over 3.5 billion….
911 chars
Mark P said on July 28, 2022 at 10:08 pm
The after-tax payout right now is calculated (not by me) to be $371,131,545 in Georgia. The expected return is about $1.22, calculated as the payout times the probability of winning (one in 302,575,350). The expected return is a rough measure of whether the bet is good, for some definition of “good.” Since the expected return is less than the cost of a ticket, even a jackpot this big is not a reasonable bet. But we all knew that. I always say your probability of winning is only slightly better if you buy a ticket than if you don’t. But we will still buy some tickets. I already have plans for about $50 million. That will leave plenty for charity and we can still fly charter from Georgia to Colorado for the rest of our lives.
739 chars
Deborah said on July 28, 2022 at 10:20 pm
I only ever buy 1 lottery ticket and so does LB and we only do it when the jackpot is enormous, which is not that often. Who cares it’s just a game. Gambling is stupid, I’ve only done it a couple of times in Las Vegas when I was there for business. I never spent more than 20 bucks and it was mainly just to say I did it. One time I played black jack and lost the $20 immediately, the other time I played slots and with $20 ended up with $17. It’s not my cup of tea.
472 chars
basset said on July 28, 2022 at 10:48 pm
If I hit the lottery I’d go to all the concerts I wanted. Just went online to buy two tickets for the Happy Together tour at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Turtles, the Union Gap, the Association, several more. $59.50 each and way up from there, can’t buy em in person… click through to pay and it’s $162.50 for the two of em, unspecified “fees” being the difference. Thirty bucks or so to park, it’s all too much, the hell with it.
The same tour will play the free stage at the Indiana State Fair next month, all it’d cost you there would be time since you’d have to show up way early to stake out a couple seats.
632 chars
Dexter Friend said on July 29, 2022 at 1:01 am
Peter, that jackpot you mention in Illinois was won by Michael Wittkowski, a regular Joe type fella, who in an interview stated he did have a penchant for bowling. The press blew it all up and said Wittkowski bought a bowling alley and sat around and bowled all day, forevermore. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-08-31-0408310267-story.html
Just bullshit.
I play almost every day, never winning much, half the time breaking even with $2 winners. I was next in line one night at House of Spirits liquor store in Auburn when a man I knew from school and his wife bought one scratch-off and won $50K. I worked for 28 years with the woman who won $1M at the Waterloo liquor store a few years ago on a $10 scratcher. I worked with a woman who won $2M about 40 years ago who abruptly quit and moved to Phoenix. I have known others who have won huge piles of money, while I hain’t never won shit.
I know at one time if a married person won, the spouse automatically gains control of 50%; if that still is a rule, Alan can buy his own boat AND a fancy shack on the Au Sable.
I would buy a Land Rover Defender and a Ford Raptor, if I could find them; new car dealers here have bare shelves.
I used to dream of a Manhattan apartment but no more. The crime surge creeps me out, plus my mobility is slow now, and in Manhattan it helps to be able to move on your feet very quickly with agility, I have been there like 9 times and I know. Now I am settled on my lottery destination: Pacific Grove, California. I’d stay there most of the time, and then when restless , I’d fly back east to see my kids in Ohio and Florida, also in my private jet, but I wouldn’t buy a jet, I’d join up with NetJets or CitationAir and fly around in a BBJ (Boeing Business Jet). Oh yes, I have a plan, I know where to go initially for handling advice for the jackpot, and I will pay huge sums just to protect my anonymity.
1923 chars
Brandon said on July 29, 2022 at 1:42 am
He would remind us that his name was pronounced ‘luh-ROY’.–MarkH
As in The Kid Laroi.
177 chars
Dorothy said on July 29, 2022 at 6:52 am
I have a lottery story but it’s happening this weekend. And it might end up being a big ol’ nothing but I’m going to try.
In Ohio there’s a Saturday evening 30 minute show called Cash Explosion. My daughter-in-law’s aunt got a chance to be on it a few years ago. She was shy so she let my d-i-l’s half brother go in her place. I think he won $15,000. Ever since then I’ve been an occasional buyer of $2 scratch off tickets for Cash Explosion. I never buy more than $10 in a week – usually I get 3 tickets. I’ve won $2 a lot, $5-$20 a couple of times and once I won $50. But the goal is to get 3 ENTRY scratched sections. If you get that, you register your ticket and hope your name gets chosen to be on the show. Has never happened, despite the fact I’ve had about 15 chances. HOWEVER – then they put a new area on the ticket that says 35 on it – for the 35th anniversary of the show. I have three of those. So the big taping of the 35th anniversary show is this coming Sunday at the Ohio State Fair. You have to get a wristband to be in the audience, and if you have any of those 35 tickets, that enters your name for a chance to be chosen out of the audience (8 people will be picked) to be on the show right there on the spot.
I am day dreaming of being chosen – hoping it’ll happen and I think every contestant gets about $10-$15,000 each even if you don’t keep winning and be the final big winner of over $100K. But isn’t it nice to dream!? I’ll report back next week. And Jeff this is what I’m doing on Sunday at the fair. I’ll get my wristband, then walk around the fair and eat what I want to eat, then I’ll be in the audience at the Taft Coliseum hoping to have my name drawn. If I don’t, I’ll bail. It would not be fun to sit there watching other people win!
1813 chars
Jeff Gill said on July 29, 2022 at 7:32 am
I’ll be driving back from Indy to Licking County Sunday afternoon and might stop at the fairgrounds long enough for a quick look at the art exhibit and get a pork loin sandwich, then on home. Next Sunday I have higher hopes, but as always it depends on each medical development in turn — this afternoon, we check on the 9 year old pacemaker in the 93 year old, and see what circumstances call for next.
403 chars
Dorothy said on July 29, 2022 at 7:47 am
I think I already told you that next Sunday (closing day) I’ll be in the building where the quilts are from 2-closing. Hand quilting an iris wall hanging I made and talking to the public with some other ladies in our guild. So I’ll be easy to find!
252 chars
Peter said on July 29, 2022 at 8:47 am
Dexter, I do know it was Michael Wittkowski – we went to the same high school.
I know that because the first phone call he received after the winning ticket was announced was from the high school – we sure could use a new roof, and did you know that contributions to your alma mater are tax deductible?
303 chars
nancy said on July 29, 2022 at 9:20 am
Dexter, I’d be careful with that imaginary Raptor. They are hot-hot-hot with thieves now; this summer alone there have been two multi-Raptor thefts from the Ford storage lot in Dearborn. Not Charger-hot yet, but getting there.
The older I get, the less cars mean to me. I’d probably keep my Subaru, and splurge on an EV for around-town driving. Or maybe I’d flip out the other way, and become the little old lady from Pasadena. With a Hellcat. And a gun, to ward off carjackers.
480 chars
Bruce Fields said on July 29, 2022 at 9:21 am
There’s not a lot of stuff I want for myself at this point. Time, mainly.
By far my biggest worries are about the state of my country and the world. Are we going to start taking climate change more seriously? Will we have a government that can solve real problems for people?
Even a billion may feel like a drop in the bucket for national-level political problems, but that’s probably where it should go.
413 chars
Icarus said on July 29, 2022 at 9:25 am
I always say I won the lottery when I met my wife. I don’t gamble much, but two years ago I bet $200 on the Buccaneers to win the Superbowl because if anyone was gonna be the first player to win in his home stadium, it would be Tom F-ing Brady. I won $1300 IIRC.
For those who don’t know NFL, the Superbowl location is chosen years in advance and until 2020, no team that went to the SP played in their own stadium, let alone won. Then it happened twice.
460 chars
Icarus said on July 29, 2022 at 9:27 am
Is there a Winning the Lottery for Dummies? Because even though I know moochers will show up and you need to safeguard your winnings so you don’t blow through it as most winners do, I don’t know the precise steps.
Hire a lawyer, sure. how do you find one for this? Get an estate planner and/or financial adviser. Again, how do you find one you can trust?
The first thing I would do is buy a home back in Chicago so I can not be here during the sweltering summers.
482 chars
Jeff Borden said on July 29, 2022 at 10:38 am
If anyone here DOES win the lottery and wants to share, I’d like a restored 1968 Pontiac LeMans convertible. The proprietor of this site may recall when I purchased a clapped out ’68 LeMans ragtop for $1,200 in 1984 in Columbus. It was all bondo and repaint below the belt line, but the interior was in surprisingly excellent shape and. . .hey. . .the top went down. It eventually died while I was living in Charlotte and I sold it to a guy who was restoring another ’68 and wanted the interior parts. Even at its advanced age, it was a cool looking car in the famous Coke bottle shaped favored by Pontiac in the mid to late-1960s.
Color me amazed Joe Manchin actually came through for a big win for Biden and the Dems. Now, will that asshole Sinema in Arizona go along or pull her “maverick” act again? There’s not a vote to spare. It’s been great fun reading about the QOP sputtering with rage at Manchin and his sneaky deal with Schumer. It’s not often the odious Mitch McConnell is outplayed politically.
1011 chars
Sherri said on July 29, 2022 at 12:30 pm
How do you hire an estate planner/financial advisor? We’re in the middle of that process right now. I picked someone that I’ve worked with in a couple of different contexts and gotten to now, and who is working with a firm that works with people like us. We tried the word of mouth approach, asking other people, and weren’t satisfied with the results, and weren’t satisfied with other financial planners we had met in other contexts. We haven’t signed on the bottom line yet, but we’re going to.
508 chars
ROGirl said on July 29, 2022 at 12:52 pm
Sherri, I was going to use the one my father had used, but by the time I was ready to do it he was retired. His calls were forwarded to an another attorney he selected. I met her, liked her and she set up a trust for me. She wasn’t cheap, but it’s done. When I win the lottery I can get in touch with her.
305 chars
basset said on July 29, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Foundation work is done, no cracks but I have to realign a couple of door locks. Found that the sump pump has given out, so there’s another project… that and cleaning out the clogged drain.
194 chars
brian stouder said on July 29, 2022 at 1:09 pm
Sherri -that’s just what Pam and I did – re: hiring a financial planner she knows to help us navigate my retirement and our upcoming re-location to Cass county (to the beautiful rural home her mom and dad had)….the big move will be in about 2 years, after our youngest daughter graduates from her high school (good ol’ Wayne – New Tech). ‘Course, right now home values are amazingly fantastic, for sellers – but presumably THAT will have changed by the time we sell(!!) – but that’s OK. Anyway – I’m now at the end of my water-break from mowing the front yard, and it is time to venture to the backyard, and see who’s late coming back from lunch at Channel 15
684 chars
Dorothy said on July 29, 2022 at 1:43 pm
I know a lawyer guy who I’ve acted in a couple of plays with. If I win any substantial amount, Dave would be able to help me. I think he’s about to retire but maybe I could lure him to work for us with a hefty contribution to his retirement!
We have banked with Charles Schwab for a long time now – they have no fees for checking accounts (like if you use the card to withdraw cash, which we rarely do cuz we get cash back at the grocery store usually). And they are our financial advisors (one of which is in Indianapolis and the other is in Columbus). They handle our investments and we’ve had several conversations about retirement and how much we can afford to tap into our savings once we are both retired. We have quarterly phone meetings with our account managers and think very highly of them. If anyone wants a name or contact email address send me an email – Nancy knows what it is.
899 chars
Joe Kobiela said on July 29, 2022 at 2:29 pm
First call after winning the lottery would be to a self made business man I know, I would heed his advise.
Would buy a new King Air 360 and put it on someone’s charter certificate and fly my family whenever and where ever, there would also be a P51 Mustang and a P47 Thunderbolt along with a F86 Saber Jet in the new Hanger, but best of all would be being able to help people, would love to be able to see a mom with a bunch of kids in the grocery and just walk up and swipe my credit card as she was checking out never saying a word just swipe and walk away.
Pilot Joe
575 chars
JodiP said on July 29, 2022 at 3:09 pm
We’ve been working with the same financial planner for about 15 or 16 years. We initially met him at a green fair, because he specializes in socially responsible investing. We checked references and he’s been great. We were one of his first clients so he’s super cheap. He charges more for newer clients.
My team and I were joking on our virtual lunch date that we will share our winnings with each other–one said she’d give us each a million and I said I’d give 5 because of inflation! It was a fun moment.
I found Deborah’s comment interesting and puzzling that it’s hard to give money away. Is that because it’s in a trust of some sort?
646 chars
Mark P said on July 29, 2022 at 3:11 pm
The jackpot has gone up, and I won’t be surprised if it goes up again before 11 pm EDT. Here in Georgia we plan to net more than $400 million. I won’t be buying a biz jet, or a yacht, or a Ferrari, or a huge mansion on the coast, but we’ll figure something out. Definitely some charter jet flights. Leaving from our local airport sounds a lot better than flying out of Atlanta. Parking will be a cinch. Maybe hire a personal assistant to drive us to the airport.
468 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 29, 2022 at 3:51 pm
We visited with three different guys who were supposedly independent financial planners, fiduciary to their clients. In the end they all wanted to sell us products which would benefit them personally. So we walked away after several sessions.
After that we did a lot of talking with the people at Vanguard who have our 401K, and with a pastor friend who used to be a banker. And we had wills drawn up after our first child was born, but it’s probably time to update those.
My mom and I attended a senior fair and talked with several attorneys there. She clicked with one of them, probably because he was very unassuming and unflashy, but also because he explained things very clearly and had written material to go with everything he discussed. She ended up going to him for a will, living will, power of attorney, and power of health care representative.
Her estate shouldn’t be too complicated because after my sister died she put my name on all her accounts, plus she doesn’t have a house or car or even apartment anymore. Just a small piece of timber land in Iowa, which we can probably sell to one of the relatives who have adjoining parcels.
IIRC Michelle Singletary at the Washington Post has guidance. I like her common sense approach.
Speaking of Mom, she’s 90 today! She wanted a pork tenderloin sandwich for lunch, and the place we found was perfect. Bigger than the plate, not greasy, and she’ll be eating the leftovers for days.
1457 chars
Icarus said on July 29, 2022 at 3:52 pm
Today is garbage and recycling pickup. Because it was lightly raining this morning, and because we don’t have a set time for pickup (leave it out or wait another week if you miss them) I stacked the 3 recycle bins I have.
They tossed one of my bins into the truck thinking it was part of the recycling because it is slightly smaller, but in no way would anyone paying attention not realize it was a 3rd bin.
Tell me this is a sh*thole town, without telling me it’s a sh*thole town.
490 chars
Deborah said on July 29, 2022 at 4:03 pm
Jodi P, yes partly because it’s a trust, but mainly there are all kinds of restrictions that IRS puts on donations, things I would never have expected, and way too complicated to describe here.
193 chars
Suzanne said on July 29, 2022 at 4:13 pm
We have a financial planner who I like ok but I am not a fan of any of them. The ball is always in their court. I have little knowledge and even less interest in all things financial, so I rely on advice. But I also see that whatever the planner recommends, he or she makes money off of it. When the investments that you have go in the toilet because of an economic downturn, you lose but your planner still has the money that you paid either up front or the commission they earned. Some get paid every time you deposit money or pay a premium. Complaints are always met with “well, anything in the market is a risk” which I understand but the risk is all mine and I haven’t found one yet that seems to care much if I lose money. Why would they?
We do have to get a new will written up, POA papers, all that stuff but I am waiting until my cancer treatments are done. I can’t plan ahead right now because I am never sure how I will feel day to day or when, for sure, my next treatment round will be. Our will is so old that it gives custody of our kids to my sister but those kids are now in their 30s so that’s a moot point. We had planned to downsize by now, move into a smaller house, get all these legal things in order but cancer put a big kink in those plans.
1278 chars
Heather said on July 29, 2022 at 5:09 pm
If I were younger and liked playing video games, I’d do Twitch or one of those other streaming services. Although there are drawbacks, like stalkers and harassment. The young woman in this story makes piles of money but has to think about her personal safety 24/7: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/technology/twitch-stalking.html
Also, I really don’t want to be “on” in front of people all the time. That’s why I’m a writer and work from home. Oh well, guess it’s the increasingly unsustainable middle-class life for me!
Or so I hope. I had to check on something in my main account the other day and took a look at my investments….yeesh. On the other hand, my Roth IRAs are doing quite well.
701 chars
David C said on July 29, 2022 at 5:49 pm
Our estate is pretty simple. 401(k)s in Vanguard funds and our house. Anything left goes to our niece who has a brain injury with her younger sister, who we trust completely, as the trustee. I didn’t think the lawyer’s fee was too outrageous, low four figures for a will and to set up the trust.
We may be leaving money on the table with Vanguard S&P 500 funds but I know the fees are as low as they get and if I messed up I know I have nobody to blame but myself.
471 chars
Jeff Gill said on July 29, 2022 at 6:17 pm
I’m with Icarus: having won the lottery once, it seems ungracious to try and do so a second time.
My wife tells me she and the leadership team at [location redacted] have bought a set of tickets together as a group project, with the corporate counsel designated as executor/manager of the proceeds should they, what’s the word, mature? Apparently they’ve had a fun week group messaging each other about things like not all retiring at once next Monday, to preserve institutional cohesion. They would be dividing the take by six, and of course the development head has reminded everyone to include a gift to [redacted] from their winnings. So I think all of them and we spouses are still scheduling work meetings for next week.
My last winning wager was on a pig at the Ohio State Fair racing for that sweet, sweet Oreo at the end of the track. My hog did not do well out of the gate, but had a nice stretch run for the win.
929 chars
LAMary said on July 29, 2022 at 6:25 pm
Roadie son is home for a few weeks and on his way out the door to hang with old high school friends I handed him a twenty to buy some tickets. I told him if I won I’d buy houses for him and his brother. Maybe a car too.
219 chars
Sherri said on July 29, 2022 at 8:05 pm
I’m looking for help now because while I’ve been comfortable managing our money in the accumulation phase of life, I’m less comfortable in the retirement phase of life, which we will move into sometime soon. My husband doesn’t have immediate plans to retire, but he is 63, and will retire at some point.
We also haven’t updated our will since our daughter was a small child, need to update our POA (which were done in California, not Washington), will probably set up a donor-advised fund to make it easier to continue our charitable giving after we have less income, and generally clean up some assorted things. We’ll probably be paying more than we have to in fees (this company will take a percentage of the money we give them to manage), but I look at it as we’ll be paying for some hand-holding and problem-solving.
838 chars
Deborah said on July 29, 2022 at 9:57 pm
My husband manages all of our finances and I freak out about handling money, it scares the living daylights out of me. Probably because I grew up poor and money was always a stressful topic in our house when I was a kid. I don’t even want to think about it.
LB and I each bought 2 Mega Millions tickets each today. The line where we bought them was incredibly long. As I said I usually only buy 1 when the jackpot gets huge but what the heck, might as well splurge since last I looked it was $1.28 billion. Now if I can just stay up until they announce the numbers, which for us here in MDT is only 9pm.
607 chars
Deborah said on July 29, 2022 at 10:29 pm
Molly Jong Fast on Twitter said this today: “My life may not turn out how I want it to but at least I won’t be buried on my second husband’s golf course.” about Ivana. Imagine that would be where you’d end up.
219 chars
Deborah said on July 29, 2022 at 11:10 pm
Didn’t win, I got 1 number though, doesn’t get me anything.
63 chars
Dexter Friend said on July 30, 2022 at 12:36 am
I hit the Mega Ball and recouped $2 on my $8 ticket. My daughter, lottery-deprived after 17 years living in Las Vegas, dropped $130 for 65 tickets, telling me $100 of that was for her M.I.L. in Las Vegas. Daughter is the one who moved to Van Buren, just north of Findlay, OH.
277 chars
Dexter said on July 30, 2022 at 9:22 am
Illinois based Mega winner. Jeff Borden? Oh… right… he doesn’t play. Peter? You?
88 chars
LAMary said on July 30, 2022 at 9:58 am
I thought it was Jeff too, Dexter. Thought I’d hit him up for some cash.
72 chars
Deborah said on July 30, 2022 at 4:45 pm
Oh no, Biden has rebound from his Paxlovid. It took me some time to get over the tiredness part of my second bout with Covid, which I didn’t have at all the first time. I didn’t have the rebound symptoms at all but it took me a good week after my other symptoms stopped before the tiredness started to wane. In fact it’s still kind of there, I tire much more quickly than normal. I thought it was partly because of the heat but it’s much cooler now and it’s somewhat still there.
489 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 30, 2022 at 7:13 pm
It took me a month to build back my energy after Covid. There were many, many naps.
Just heard the news from Iowa that my uncle had a severe stroke and was in the hospital for six weeks. Now he’s home, hooked up to monitors, and demanding attention from my aunt every moment of the day. She sounds at her wit’s end.
Of course their house is completely horrible for someone in a wheelchair. They said they were going to move maybe five years ago but kept on putting it off.
478 chars
Deborah said on July 30, 2022 at 8:58 pm
I gave some money last night to the Gen Z for Change initiative by Olivia Juliana the 19 year old activists who was body shamed by Matt Gaetz. They’re up to $2 million now which is spectacular. A real good news story. I also added some dems running for office to my giving after I said I couldn’t really afford to do more than I pledged a few months ago until the election. But it seems critical.
396 chars
basset said on July 30, 2022 at 10:12 pm
Reporter shows up to witness an execution in Alabama. Prison bureaucrats bar her because her skirt is too short and finally let her in wearing fishing waders.
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2022/07/alabama-prisons-say-reporters-skirt-too-short-to-witness-execution.html
275 chars
nancy said on July 30, 2022 at 11:29 pm
That story is amazing. And yet: Not.
36 chars
Dexter Friend said on July 31, 2022 at 5:14 am
A friend asked me about my heckling Agnew, since it’s been 50 years, nearly. It got massive local coverage and even made Walter Cronkite, but look at what I found in the Times, which I had no idea has been archived all these years. For the record, there were no youthful protesters shouting, there were just a few of us and I was the voice yelling, and we were not “at the back of the crowd”, we were right up front, 10 feet from Agnew.
THE 1972 CAMPAIGN
By James T. Wooten
Special to The New York Times
Oct. 4, 1972
Credit…The New York Times Archives
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
FORT WAYNE, Ind., Oct. 3 — Vice President Agnew abandoned his restrained recitations today for a snappy, off‐the‐cuff debate with youthful hecklers.
At a lunch‐hour outdoor rally here, he responded to their antiwar slogan with a series of extemporaneous rebukes that surprised and delighted a pre dominantly pro‐Republican audience of several thousand Hoosiers.
Glaring out across the crowd to the tiny band of protesters standing beneath a large antiwar banner, the Vice President called them “bleeding hearts” and dismissed them with a disgusted wave of his hand as unrepresentative of the country.
His pungent retorts sharply contrasted with the established rhythms of his campaign, which have been characterized until lately by a soft‐voiced celebration of the Nixon Administration’s record.
The repartee between Mr. Agnew and the hecklers, many of whom identified themselves as members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, came on the first stop in a three‐day trip that will take him into Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and West Virginia.
Speaking to a shirtsleeved crowd, the Vice President had offered his usual campaign fare — a pitch for local Republican candidates and praise for the President — and had just begun his litany on the health of the American economy when he was interrupted by shout from the back of the audience:
“How many bombs were dropped today?”
Mr. Agnew paused, looked sternly toward the challenge, and began.
“I will get to Vietnam,” he said. “I’m glad you brought Vietnam up, because I’d certainly not want to go away without responding to the thoughtless cries of ‘How many bombs did you drop today?’”
The Vice President told the protesters that President Johnson’s cessation of bombing had served only to motivate the North Vietnamese into an escalation of the war.
‘One Thing to Do’
He said that if the North Vietnamese “want to stop this war, they have only one thing to do: get those thousands and thousands of troops out of South Vietnam, sit down at the bargaining table under inter national supervision, have a ceasefire, allow the interna tional community to witness free election so that the South Vietnamese people can deter mine whom they want to govern them.”
Then, warming, to his task, the Vice President said:
“But what really makes my heart bleed is that these bleeding hearts don’t have any sympathy for the people that stand in the South Vietnamese marketplace when rockets were deliberately aimed at them.
“And these people have no sympathy for the columns of fleeing refugees who were headed south to escape the North Vietnamese tanks and were machine‐gunned down as they ran.
“What about those people? They are entitled to your compassion, too. Stop tearing your own country apart and recognize your enemy.”
3845 chars
Jeff Borden said on July 31, 2022 at 12:37 pm
While you read about the dress code for Alabama’s execution chamber, try to hunt down a way to read an amazing story in today’s NYT about the Alabama Constitution, which has a staggering 977 amendments. The wealthy and the large land owners pushed through the original in 1901, relieving all taxing bodies from cities to sewer districts of the ability to pass taxes. ONLY the state legislature can do that. As a result, there are fines and fees for everything –including the costs of a trial — with the result that many poor people find themselves deeply in debt and subject to jail terms. Dear Lord, but the Deep South is so profoundly weird and cruel.
To Sherri: Hiring the right estate planner can be tricky. We relied on the advice of my money manager, who recommended a law firm specializing only in trusts and wills. The attorney had helped our money guy set up trusts for his out-of-state daughters from soup to nuts. So, we set an initial meeting, which went very well as the attorney explained precisely what they would do and exactly how much it would cost. We liked the guy and wound up using him. One thing I’d beware of are additional fees. We’re paying a fairly substantial amount, but it includes an entire package and allows us to make slight alterations to the trusts if circumstances warrant. Major changes would result in us being billed $450 per hour for their services, but we’re not anticipating ever needing to do that.
1447 chars
Deborah said on July 31, 2022 at 1:05 pm
I can’t get this out of my mind. Those of us who have an ex-husband can you imagine yours deciding where you will be buried? Just that alone is mind boggling. Then the fact that your children might consent to it is even more outrageous. And then add to that the location chosen would be a tacky location at your ex’s golf course. And to top it all off your ex would get a tax cut for your grave being on his property. Now imagine all that being done after your ex cheated on you mercilessly while you were married to him.
521 chars
LAMary said on July 31, 2022 at 1:54 pm
A former co-worker had brother in prison and she told me that the dress requirements for female visitors were very strict. No v necks. Not even a very modest v neck. No skirts above knee. No pants even slightly tight. She and her mother had been turned away for her sixtyish mother’s v neck top. This was about 20 years ago so things may have changed by now.
358 chars
Icarus said on July 31, 2022 at 3:50 pm
Deborah at @54: I googled and see that Ivana had 2 husbands post-Trump, albeit for less than an NBA season.
This is one thing that I wouldn’t worry about. When someone dies, there is a need to figure out what to do with the body and you contact next-of-kin. I’m guessing The Donald is the only one who stepped up and felt some obligation but simultaneously made it about himself with the fundraising and the burying her on his golf course for tax benefits.
As long as your current husband or any next of kin steps up, you shouldn’t end up buried on the 7th hole.
575 chars
tajalli said on July 31, 2022 at 4:18 pm
Nichelle Nichols died yesterday – natural causes. She was 89.
Although I watched TOS, I had major objections: the women had to wear mini skirts, which are cold and drafty, rather than long pants; Kirk was a womanizer. I felt sorry for Nichols because of that and appreciated how competent her character was allowed to be.
327 chars
Deborah said on July 31, 2022 at 7:21 pm
Icarus, of course I know that I’d never let that happen to me, I’m not worried about that. It’s just that I can’t imagine how someone would let themselves end up that way, and that her children didn’t stop it. She was married before Trump briefly, and twice after Trump. Her last husband died when he was in his 40s from skin cancer. She was of course much older than he was. It seems as though Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric don’t want to cross their Dad in any way, probably because he’s such a grifter that can keep them in gravy. It’s just such a dysfunctional family. Marla Maples should speak up but she’s no doubt getting paid off or she’s afraid she’s going to fall down the stairs too.
687 chars
beb said on July 31, 2022 at 9:46 pm
I enjoyed your article in Deadline Detroit about the Republican party. So many people left without a party, Too conservative to be a Democrat and too real-world centered to be a Republican.
Another article on Deadline Detroit caught my eye, about the guy who started shooting up a neighbor’s late night party. But for the lack of a gun I would be there, too.
My wife is curious why she didn’t get a mail-in ballot for this week’s primary. Walking and standing have become real issues with her. She thought she had applied for permanent mail-in ballots, or is that not a thing?
L keep hearing so much about covid rebound following Paxlovid I wonder what’s the point. Or maybe the recommended dosage is all wrong.
I heard about Olivia Juliana being body-shamed by Matt Gaetz and funding raising off that. What a successful fund-raising!
Re: Ivana. My sister was widowed last year. She has no kids. I was surprised that she has made detailed instructions post-life but it makes a lot of sense. And reminds me that I need to do something myself. By I avoid thinking about dying.
It’s sad to hear of Nichelle Nichols passing but I have heard there were issues with custodians and her declining cognition so in a way this is all for the best. Mini-skirts or not Nichols’ Uhura was an important role on television. The show was a product of it’s time, all the women were scantily dressed compared to the men. But she spoke with an authoritative voice on the show and though she was never left in command of the ship there was never a question but if she was placed in command she would be up to the task.
1618 chars
jcburns said on July 31, 2022 at 10:08 pm
Beb, the “point” of Paxlovid is to get you through the crappy symptoms of Covid quickly and safely. The rebound thing is just something that happens, sometimes, with some people.
It’s OK!
If you get Covid-19, take the Paxlovid.
233 chars