Words in a waltz

Somewhere in Illinois or its bordering states - Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, or Kentucky is an ill-fated individual (I leave the gender totally up to your wild imagination) whose fancy dreams of reaching out to the stars from a magic carpet on bagging a few million bucks at the lottery have been crushed forever. And the individual, in all possibility, is entirely oblivious to the recent goings-on that have so sealed his/ her fortune. The winning Lotto numbers 14 - 23 - 24 - 36 - 37 - 50 were drawn on January 31, 2004 and the ticket in question was sold at a Gas Station in Frankfort, IL. Sure, there’ve been scores of crafty souls that have come forward with the wackiest of tales and feints to claim ownership of the prize. Some, according to the grapevine, have offered to fetch the ticket in once their trash has been sorted out, few others have miserably recounted having tripped and fallen soon after buying the ticket, thus losing sight of it while they braced themselves to stand up in one piece, and some others have even dared to show up with carefully glued bits of paper simulating the numbers in sequence. But the actual winner is missing, still.

The $14 million Illinois Lottery jackpot expires at midnight today if no one comes forward with the real winning ticket. And if it remains unclaimed, it will be the biggest unclaimed prize in Illinois Lottery history. Following which, the money will become part of the Lottery's contribution to the State Common School Fund. To own a gold mine and not know how to quarry, ugh. And then, there’s the freak that left behind a $1300 tip for a $33 pasta meal he gorged on at one of the city’s restaurants. Seems to me like Spartan’s gone on a rather long, nice walk.