"Somehow I'll Spend It"

An 84 year old woman hit the jackpot on the nickel slots at Harrah's in Atlantic City two days ago. What was that jackpot? $10,010,113.48. Here, read it again. $10,010,113.48. Still don't believe?

$10,010,113.48

That's right. A nickel (or actually, 3 or 4 nickels, depending on the machine - you have to generally bet the max to win the max) won this woman over 10 million dollars. I mean, shoot. She can give me the $10,113.48, keep a cool, even $10 million, and still be straight. And then I can buy a new car.

She's 84 years old.

And do you know what she said?

"Somehow, I'll spend it."

And

"I'm just happy I won it, for my family, although they don't need it."

Read that last part again.

"...although they don't need it."

This my friends, is not justice. An 84-year-old woman, wins a record sum (no nickel machine in the country has ever given away that much), tells people her family doesn't need the money (who doesn't need $10 million?), and makes no mention of donations to charity, Katrina, Sudan, the Tsunami victims, nothing. She could donate the $10 million to the state of New Jersey so they can clean up their swamp land. Something. Anything.

The lone bright spot, however, was watching last nights sportscenter, as Stu Scott offered a marriage proposal to this 84-year-old woman, and then Scott Van Pelt quickly got in on the act. The faded to black as the two playfully argued over this woman's "love."

I gotta go to Vegas.

Gas

Here is an e-mail I recieved, and I thought this would be a good place to tell others, without having to send mass e-mails. It's a pretty good idea:


This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one
of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It ' s worth your
consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon
by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?
We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered
this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day"
campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just
laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves
by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a
problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really
work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking
gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently
$2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the
OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas
is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them
that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of
gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only
way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in
the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT
hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop
buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together
to force a price war.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest
companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any
gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their
prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and
Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this
point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions
of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten
more (30 x 10 =3D 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x
10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group
of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three
million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million
people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed
it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION >>>>PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you
don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send
this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician.
But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten
more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could
conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please
pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY
LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK.


Now, I don't know if this can actually, in fact, work. However, it's worth a try, right? So tell everyone you know about it. Let's see if we can't make this idea tip.

St. Louis Public Transportation, part 2

So, while riding the bus to the Metrolink to work today, I saw something that didn't complete change my mind on public transportation, but made my feelings towards it a hell of a lot better.



You know so many people bike around NY, but it's really a pain in the ass when they ride the public transportation because their bike is so big and the buses/trains are always so crowded? Well St. Louis has solved this problem. They have a bike rack that can hold two bikes on the front of the bus. It's ingenious. The most amazing thing I've ever seen. It more than makes up for further disenfranchising the poor in the city.



Well, not really. But it's still a very good idea.

St. Louis Public Transportation

I rode the Metrolink to work today, and a couple of things struck me:

1. The Metrolink comes relatively on time (the time that is posted for each station on their website), which, compared to NY transit is an amazing feat.
2. The Metrolink needs to come on time because the come every 10 minutes, and if you miss one, you're screwed.
3. When you arrive at the Metrolink at the same time the train is arriving, and have yet to buy a ticket, the station attendants do not ask the conductor to hold the train for you for a moment, while you "do the right thing."

Point number 3, however, leads me to the actual topic of my post: The Metrolink as a tool to further segregate the black/poor from the white/rich in St. Louis.

I say this, not because I think that it's purposeful on the cities behalf to make public transportation nearly completely inefficient just because it's primary riders are poor (though I do feel the sense of apathy that comes with attempting to improve transportation is there solely because nobody cares about the poor who are relegated to riding it).

I say this because, for one, the Metrolink costs $2 to get a 2-hour pass, in which you can ride any mode of public transportation (busses included) during that time span. $2 is the cost of NY Public Transportation, and any that have been to New York, or know about it, know that the Metrolink cannot possibly be comparable. Overcharging the public for a less than mediocre transportation system (if you're lucky, the bus you need comes every half hour) is the first offense.

The second offense, however, is the way the Metrolink is run, and how it coincides with this outrageous cost. When you ride the Metrolink at peak hours, there is generally a station attendant who asks to see your ticket or bus transfer before entering the platform. I say generally, because they're not always there, and peak hours because it's usually early mornings when people are off to work. However, these attendants are only at the most crowded stations, and they only stand at one entrance, so when there is more than one this point is moot. Next, you have people on the train asking to see your ticket, and in turn giving you a fine if you do not have one (what that fine is, I have yet to determine, but I will find out).

This all seems like a decent system for a small time train, doesn't it? The fact is, however, that the people on the train looking at tickets are rarely, if at all, on the train. I've encountered this situation twice, and I've ridden the Metrolink well over a dozen times. The people at the station checking if you have your tickets are also rarely there (with the exception of the peak hours at crowded stations I just mentioned). This creates quite a conundrum for those who don't have a lot of money. If there is no person on the platform, do you take what appears to be a 25% chance (figuring conservatively) that you will be asked for your ticket on the train, or do you "do the right thing" and buy your ticket regardless? If you're making a short trip, that significantly decreases the likelyhood that you'll be asked to show your ticket, and even further so if the train is semi-crowded, as anytime someone is caught without a ticket the transportation working is forced to remove the person from the train and get their information on the platform. Therefore, it would seem that the chances of getting caught were slim to none.

So now you have this system, designed to overcharge people (particularly poor people, of which make up at least 50% of the Metrolink riders, I can safely assume), and you have a government that is almost entirely too trustworthy, almost to the point of an attempt to trap those people. The fact is, that if the NYC subway were an "optional" payment as the Metrolink is, I probably would not pay it as often either. The fact that I generally have to take a bus before I get to the Metrolink is mainly the reason I pay my fair, other than the fact that I do have the money to afford it, and therefore don't see the point of forcing a negative consequence on myself.

But if I didn't have the money? Well, you can bet I would take my chances. And why shouldn't I? It's practically encouraged. The fact remains that what the Metrolink needs to do is institue a smaller fare, and a more exact measure in being able to determine who has payed that fare. It's not to catch people that don't pay it, but simply to be fair to the people that can't afford to pay it as easily. As it stands, most people on the Metrolink that get caught without a ticket, seem to me, not to be trying to get a free ride, but feeling like what's the sense in paying money that you don't have when the odds are with you that you won't get caught. It's an unfair system, and something's gotta give.