Friday's Odds and Ends

Good morning East Texas. On tap today is a warm spring day. Some clouds and lots of humidity, with a chance of rain. So if you've planted your garden, everything should get a good drink today.

In national news we have Mitt Romney still trying to get out from under the negative impact of having his dog ride on the roof of his car back in 1983.  A story about the incident was first reported in 1997 in the Boston Globe and was brought to light again yesterday. Brent Budowski wrote an article for The Hill poking fun at Romney for wanting to build an elevator in his mansion "so his various cars can ride painlessly to his penthouse, or whatever one calls it, and the Romneys can painlessly enter the car without the burden of walking down the stairs."

Yes, folks, that's right. You read it here second.

In fairness to Romney, he is not the only wealthy man who squanders money on extreme luxuries, but does that make it the smart or wise thing to do? You can have a lot of money and live very comfortably without creating an image of lavish overkill. Think of Warren Buffett. I still remember seeing him sitting in the general admission seats at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska watching the Omaha Royals play ball. Other than the fact that he drove there in a nicer car than my husband and I did, there was little to distinguish us from each other. And he didn't need an elevator to take his car anywhere. He parked it in a nice garage at his nice house in the city.

On the subject of great wealth, the Mega Millions  lottery has the biggest jackpot ever and it could be won tonight by some lucky person.  It currently stands at $540 million and could go higher throughout the day. What are the odds of winning? About one in 175 million. Despite those odds, I'll plunk down a dollar today. I don't do that very often at all, but, hey, if you don't play the odds are even greater that you won't win.

What about you? Do you ever take a chance on the lottery? What would you do with the money?