HOMELESS ASPEN, COLORADO, MAN BUYS WINNING LOTTERY TICKET

There are so many things wrong about that headline. A Colorado man who had been homeless for more than six years won $500,000 last Friday on a scratch-off lottery ticket. 60-year-old Michael Engfors, of Aspen, had suffered a series of misfortunes that included divorce, alcoholism, and the loss of his business. Jeremy Kowalis of the Aspen Homeless Shelter said, “Michael never gave up. He knew that if he kept pushing on, eventually his luck would change.” A clerk at the Aspen Store said that Engfors was a frequent lottery player, usually with $1 and $2 tickets. But on Friday, he bought a $10 ticket, then came running back into the station shouting “I won.” Engfors went to a local church to spend the weekend sleeping on the floor. The homeless shelter’s director drove Engfors to Colorado state lottery headquarters in Grand Junction Monday to begin collecting his winnings. Asked what he was going do with the money, Engfors said he wanted to get some skis and he really wanted to connect with his daughter who he hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
* The rich in Aspen are different from you and I. So are the Aspen homeless.
* Great. Now homeless people everywhere are going to start wasting their money on lottery tickets.
* Maybe when we see people holding signs asking for money, we should give them scratch-off lottery tickets instead?
* “Michael … knew that if he kept pushing on, eventually his luck would change.” Huh? What about all the other millions of people who are pushing on, thinking their luck will change? When do we get OUR winning lottery tickets?
* I make it a rule always to sort of hate lottery winners, but I might an exception here.
* Naa, I hate him too.
* If I were that homeless shelter, I wouldn’t be giving away Michael Engfors’ bunk just yet.
* What he’s about to discover is how little 500 grand can be if you don’t know what you’re doing.
* Not that I’d know either … but my first move wouldn’t be to buy some skis.
* Let’s not turn this into a tale of perseverance. He bought a lottery ticket. He didn’t climb Mt. Everest.