April 9, 1998
Dear Everyone:
Lotto Fever has struck again in California.
“Lotto” is the
state lottery. For one
dollar, you pick six numbers either at random, or choosing your “lucky”
numbers. Once each week (or
maybe twice, I don’t pay much attention to all this) some numbers are
selected at random and if your numbers match, you win the lottery.
If no one wins, the money stays in the pot for the next lottery.
As of last Tuesday, the pot had grown to
$70,000,000. And people who
ordinarily don’t play the lottery are lining up (literally) to buy
tickets. Someone at work
suggested that we set up a pool.
Everyone who wanted to participate put in five dollars and, in
the unlikely chance that we get the winning numbers, we would split the
proceeds evenly among the participants.
In general, my approach to gambling has always
been: Why throw money away
on gambling when you can spend it on chocolate?
Nevertheless, in the interests of teamwork, I tossed five bucks
into the pool. We have 22
people participating for a total of 110 possible chances at getting the
magic numbers.
As of yesterday, the pot had increased to 90
million dollars. That’s a
lot of chocolate. However,
I’m not holding my breath.
We’ll know soon enough.
Much speculation on how everyone would spend their
millions (after taxes, of course).
One man said he would charter a fishing boat and take us all
fishing. “Murray” said that
would work out as the rest of us would have enough money now to buy the
necessary fishing tackle. As
for me, if we win, I’ll take “Jeannie” to
Disneyland.
I have a much better chance at getting money back
from the government. Yes!!!
I finally did my taxes last weekend.
On the suggestion of a co-worker, I had purchased both the
federal and state versions of
TurboTax.
This is a software that asks you a gazillion questions, then
fills out all the necessary forms for you and prints them out.
The software cost about $60, not counting the $10 rebate I just
discovered I qualify for.
This makes the second time I’ve used the computer
to do my taxes. After trying
both TaxCut and
TurboTax, I would recommend the latter (unsolicited endorsement).
I mean, who knew you could deduct the DMV registration fee on
your car from your federal taxes?
I’ll be getting a nice, fat check from the feds and a somewhat
smaller one from the state of California.
They will more than cover the five bucks I blew on the lottery.
Even with taxes, I still found time to check out a
movie with “Jeannie”. I gave
her the choice of the latest
Bruce Willis
one-man-against-an-army or “Danger,
Will Robinson!” To my
surprise, she chose the second, even though I know she doesn’t like
Gary Oldman.
Back in the mid-1960’s,
Gene Roddenberry
went to CBS to pitch his
idea for a science fiction TV series, which he billed as “Wagon
Train to the Stars”. The
CBS executives seemed very interested and asked many questions about the
more technical aspects of a series based on alien planets.
How would he handle the special effects and keep the show under
budget? Roddenberry spent a
couple of hours detailing his plans, then was stunned when they said,
“Thanks, anyway. We’ve
decided to go with our own show.”
And implemented many of his ideas into
Lost in Space.
It must have been especially galling to Roddenberry
when he brought out Star Trek
a year later, only to have reporters ask, “Be honest.
Isn’t this just another
Lost in Space?” Of
course, ultimately, Roddenberry got his revenge, with a string of
spin-off series and I’ve forgotten how many movies.
Now Lost in Space is
only just catching up to its more illustrious relative.
Over thirty years later, the Robinson family is
again setting off in their space ship to colonize another planet.
Once again, Dr. Smith is mucking up the plans.
Gary Oldman plays Smith.
In the never-ending debate of whether Dr. Smith is inherently
evil or just plain stupid, Oldman opts for evil; then the movie never
explains why.
William
Hurt plays his usual Yes-I’m-self-absorbed-but-love-me-anyway
character (patent pending) as Prof. John Robinson, a man who dictates
notes to himself to remember to video-tape apologies to his children for
missing all the milestones in their lives.
He figures, by taking his family on a dangerous mission, he can
immerse himself totally in his work and still be a “family man”.
The rest of the family doesn’t agree; but they go along anyway.
The plot and dialogue are just as ridiculous and
hokey as they were in the TV show.
But the special effects are
much better.
“Jeannie” just about freaked at the metal-munching space spiders.
And any time they throw time travel into a script, you can forget
about understanding the plot.
Just enjoy the show.
Or, wait for the video.
Love, as always,
Pete
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