$294M lottery winner is cleaning woman from Lowell

[MaineDem]

BRAINTREE, Mass. -- A house-cleaning retiree from Lowell no longer has to mop her own floors or dust her own furniture.

By winning a $294 million Mega Millions jackpot, Geraldine Williams can hire all the personal housekeepers she likes.

Williams, who was introduced at a news conference at state lottery headquarters Friday, said she's still stunned by her luck, a week after the numbers were drawn.

"I'm in disbelief," she said. "I can't believe it's me."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/09/294m_lottery_winner_is_cleaning_woman_from_lowell/

[Raven]

1. I love it what that happens!!!

Just love it! This lady finished the house she was cleaning and then went to a flea market...AFTER she learned she had the winning number. She's going to give the $ to her 3 kids and to charity and then travel. :-)

[KansDem]

3. Perhaps there is a God...

Or at least "God" on 294,000,000 little slips of green paper! :party:

[AP]

8. We're now a nation of house cleaners. You'll see this story more often.

Law of averages. The average American will win the lottery.

I'd rather say fuck lotteries, and take a nation with a progressive income tax and one where people who are willing to work hard a rewarded with wealth so that we can be a nation of something better than house cleaners.

[Malva Zebrina]

11. Me too

.

[htuttle]

2. CLEANING WOMAN!?!?!?!?!!!!

SLOOOOOWWWLLLY I turned, step by step.....

:evilgrin:

[tainted_chimp]

5. delete please! (whoopsie daisy)

(posted twice)

[tainted_chimp]

6. Love that movie!

"What are you doing!?"

"Adjusting your Willie..... when you fainted, it shifted all out of whack.."

(or something like that!) :hi:

[Massacure]

4. Perhaps she should go to college and start a cleaning business.

[AP]

9. She doesn't have to work now. That's the beauty of the lottery. Rewarding

chance, kind of like how society rewards people who are lucky to be born to wealthy parents and then leaves everyon else a 1 in 20 million chance of winning a lottery and seeing that kind of wealth.

[KayLaw]

7. Hurrah!

I'm glad for her!:toast:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Said about lotteries:

"It says a lot about what America has become when The American Dream has become winning the lottery"- Sen. Tom Harkin(sic. To my best recollection.)

"Lotteries are a tax on stupidity"-Voltaire

[cdsilv]

12. Ignorance tax....

..imagine an olympic size swimming pool filled with BB's - one painted red. For $1 you get a chance to put on a blindfold, jump in and grab one BB. Are you going to grab the red one? Oh, yeah if you do, you have to put it back and let others try as well. (this example doesn't really approach the actual odds....)

Lotteries are really a tax on folks who can't do math, but it is nice to hear when someone 'deserving' wins one.

[Endangered Specie]

14. 100 sheets of paper are a quarter inch thick...

the odds of you winning the lottery are equal to the chances you (blindfolded) correctly pick the sheet labeled "winner" out of a stack of blank pieces of paper 5 and a third MILES high. nearly 30,000 feet, the cruising altitude of many commercial airliner.

[susu369]

13. Great news!

After years of hard work, the lady gets a lucky break. Good for her.

Sadly, lotteries are the "poor person's hope."