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2 APR 04: SWEET DREAM?
"I may buy a ticket to win that 'Dream Home,'" a friend of mine told me at church the other day. If he does this, he will become the second admitted gambler in my congregation - and prove this group isn't quite as fundamentalist as the Pastor tries to makes it sound.
My friend was talking about the St. Jude Dream Home, which will be given away in a drawing during a Saturday afternoon telethon. A ticket in this big-money raffle costs $100 Reason #1 why I'm not playing: at that price I think a couple of shares of AFLAC stock would be a better investment.
But my friend admitted he was having doubts about whether he should try to win the $260,000 St. Jude Dream Home. "I found out it's in a bad neighborhood," he said. A bad neighborhood?! It's at the Garrett Creek subdivision in Midland! They could have built this house on 30th Avenue or something.
(Maybe he thinks it's a "bad neighborhood" right now because all the low-priced gas stations are on the other side of town.)
My friend seemed to be thinking out loud about the Dream Home, as he continued: "If I win it, I'd probably sell it - like that man did last year." You may recall the 2003 drawing was won by a Fort Benning soldier who was about to be transferred across the country. I wonder which commanding general lives there now....
I merely listened to my friend talk about the Dream Home - and since he didn't ask for my advice, I didn't give him any. Had he asked at that moment, I probably would have stated Reason #2: the denomination I attend opposes gambling. But then again, a man who openly went on blackjack trips to Biloxi gave sermonettes in my congregation for years.
Several other points have come to mind in the last few days, about buying a Dream Home ticket:
+ Reason #3: The taxes you have to pay if you win -- not only property tax, but income tax for winning a contest. I haven't heard anything about this house having loft space you can rent out.
+ Reason #4: If you're a committed Christian as my friend is, you'll have to pay a tithe on the "income" of winning the house. Somehow I doubt this single man has $26,000 sitting around in the bank.
(Of course, he might try to find creative ways to get around this tithing issue. But my Pastor lives in Macon, and I don't think he'd want to pay $2,000 a month in rent for a place he'd only visit four times a month.)
+ Reason #5: I'm NOT a tax accountant -- but it would seem to me if you sell the house after winning it, you'd wind up being taxed TWICE. The money from the sale would count as income, too. Maybe homeless people figured this all out
already....
+ Reason #6: It's a big four-bedroom house - so who knows what kind of annoying friends and relatives will say they "need a place to stay for a couple of weeks," and wind up never leaving.
+ Reason #7: Each ticket goes to the St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis. I'm sure this is a very helpful place - but with 7,500 tickets costing $100 each, couldn't a little of that money go for a Columbus outpatient clinic?
+ Reason #8: The winning name is being drawn on a Saturday afternoon - and my friend keeps the same seventh-day Sabbath I do. Why doesn't he tell these people to wait until after sundown?
E-MAIL UPDATE: Well, spit the dummy! For the first time, we have a blog e-mail from New Zealand:
Did you see the Wardogs team down under game? I would be interested in getting the score as I can't find it anywhere. FYI last years score was 76-6
Australian and New Zeland Football are about at a NAIA or NCAA DIV3 level but obviously lower when you put up the barrier of players paying for themselves.
Great blog. keep it up.
Michael
Sorry, Michael, I didn't go to last Sunday's Wardogs game. I was too busy booing and hissing at my television set -- as Georgia Tech beat Kansas in the college basketball playoffs.
TV reports said the Wardogs whipped "Team Down Under" 80-0. So much for it being "Freedom Bowl II" - because Columbus didn't even give the visitors a free drive down the field.
I can understand why Michael couldn't find the score from last Sunday. As of Thursday night, the Wardogs web site had NOT posted it - and in fact, it was still promoting a game which ended four days before. Coach John Fourcade may have declared Team Down Under the Wardogs' "season opener," but no one else seems to agree with him.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Force lost 42-40 to Detroit Thursday night in major-league arena football. What an oxymoron THAT is - "major-league arena football." It's sort of like going to a top-of-the-line pawn shop....
BLOGGER'S NOTE: We may not have any entries for the next few days, as we finish our "major-league" spring cleaning. When it's finished, we promise to explain what we've been doing....
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