When I was young, I would wait expectantly day after day for the prize patrol to knock on our door. Each summer when I visited my grandparents, I donated huge DNA samples, licking and pasting magazine stamps into blank boxes. I put secret prize stickers into hidden envelopes and watched grandpa package up the whole gloppy mess to send to “Sweepstakes Central.” Every year when they announced the winner, it turned out to be some octogenarian in Omaha. The winner received his prize of a jillion dollars in the form of an annuity payment of $150,000 per year for both of the remaining years of his life. Continue reading →