Our current national mania for the Mega Millions jackpot, projected to hit $1.55 billion by Tuesday's drawing, would almost certainly excite the scorn of Ambrose Bierce.
A largely forgotten American writer, Bierce was the guy who came up with that oft-quoted line about the lottery being "a tax on people who are bad at math." His whole brand was acerbic wit, and I guess he was considered to be pretty hilarious by the standards of 1911, but on this particular subject I think Bierce was a jerk.
