Ping-Pong balls make dreams come true. Every year, hundreds of millionaires are made courtesy of a numbered plastic ball. Itchy fingers can find scratch-off ticket success sometimes as well. So is something that creates instant wealth good or bad?

This week we present our first ever tag-team Duel. Chris Hill (TMF Wizard) and Ginger Huang (TMF Zog) favor the lottery while Rick Munarriz (TMF Edible) and Paul Larson (TMF Parlay) prefer not to chance the system.

With four voices on the mat you can be sure that the arguments will fly fast and furious before one party goes down for the count.

The Bull Argument... It seems a tad unlikely that Ginger and I should end up here. After all, we are mere amateurs, novices in the arena of Dueling Fools. And who are our opponents? None other than the veteran warriors, Rick and Paul. Do we even stand a chance??? Probably not. But I guess that's for you to decide. Ginger will get into some of the other positive aspects of the Lottery, but I'll start by speaking to all of you registered voters out there. Continue »

The Bear Argument... Shirley Jackson got it right. In junior high required reading, her short story "The Lottery" nailed the lotto-hungry sentiment of today. A town, buzzing and nervously giddy. A winner, suddenly overcome with emotion. Of course, in Jackson's lottery the annual ritual ends with the winner getting pelted to death. In the 1998 version, it's human logic that's getting whacked senseless. Continue »

The Bull Argument »

 This Week's Duel