If I win the lottery

The California Lottery jackpot has made one of its occasional forays past the hundred-million-dollar mark, which is a trigger for me to actually buy a ticket. Last night I was walking on the treadmill, listening to the Giants' loss to the Expos on the radio, and watching a strange CBS drama with the sound turned off (it turned out to be "CSI," and completely incomprehensible without the dialogue, though I have no faith it would be any more comprehensible, much less more bearable, with the sound). Since neither the walking, the baseball game, nor the elaborately produced teleplay were enough to occupy my mind, I passed the time fantasizing what I would do if I won the lottery.

First off: The "jackpot" is $120 million or so; a winner gets about 55% of that after all is said and done. So call it $60 million. Okay, so first I would set aside $3 million as a reward fund for information leading to the conviction of lottery officials for any crimes or malfeasance. Fucking losers. Then I would set aside $20 million or so to give a half million to each of about thirty friends who are artists and writers. They've worked for 20 or 30 years of their lives at day jobs so they can do their art; that's enough. They should have the leisure to just do their art. I suppose I'd have to make this a foundation or something so they wouldn't have half of their gift subtracted by the tax man. Then I would give $20 million or so to Bay Area schools for art and music programs and for library books.

That would still leave me about more than enough that I would never have to work again. I could just write my novels for the rest of my life. Nice fantasy. But since I'm not going to win the lottery, tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon I'll get back to work on my novel. I think it's only slightly more likely that I will ever be able to support myself from writing fiction than it is for me to win the lottery. In fact, I there must be far more lottery winners in California every year than successful novelists, so maybe I have that backwards. I should be investing in more lottery tickets.