January Question A Day Meme
Jan. 14th, 2026 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatCatching up on the January Question a Day Meme:
11. The first National State lottery in England was drawn in 1569. The first prize was £5,000, and other prizes included tapestries and high-quality linen cloth. How much does it cost to enter where you live (and have you ever bought a ticket)?
A couple of things? It wasn't initially successful in the US. the First National Lottery in the US which took place on November 18, 1776 was a colossal failure.
"On November 18, 1776, the First Continental Congress enacted a national lottery designed to complete with state and local lotteries at the time. The reason for getting in the lottery game was a simple yet important one for delegates of the thirteen colonies: help fund the costly Revolutionary War."
And we don't do it as a nation? (Probably because it wasn't successful. I'm aware of how confusing the US system is to the rest of the world? We're a nation made up of individually governed member states, which basically means the Federal or Centralized National Government doesn't quite have as much power as people may think?)
"The first U.S. multi-state lottery game was formed in 1985 in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; its flagship game remains Tri-State Megabucks. In 1988, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) was formed with Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for Powerball, which was designed to create large jackpots. Another joint lottery, The Big Game (now called Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by six lotteries as its charter members.
As of October 2020, each of the 45 state lotteries offer both Mega Millions and Powerball as a result of a 2009 agreement between the Mega Millions consortium and MUSL to cross-license their game to one another's members, although the two organizations continue to administer Mega Millions and Powerball separately. Mississippi was the most recent to join both, beginning sales in January 2020. Puerto Rico is the only jurisdiction not to offer both, as they do not offer Mega Millions. "
A lottery ticket usually just costs between $1-5, depending on the number of rows, numbers, type of ticket, etc that you want to buy. I've never spent more than $5 for a lottery ticket. I've never won either. Although I did win at scratch - once, got $20, didn't spend a dime, it was given to me as a Xmas gift.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States
12. In 1948, the first Supermarket in the UK opened - the Co-op, the country’s first permanent self-service store, in East London’s Manor Park. Do you use one specific supermarket to buy groceries, and do they have a loyalty card scheme you belong to? How does it work?
"Chain grocery retailing was a phenomenon that took off around the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States, with the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (1859) and other small, regional players. Grocery stores of this era tended to be small (generally less than a thousand square feet) and also focused on only one aspect of food retailing. Grocers (and most of the chains fell into this camp) sold what is known as “dry grocery” items, or canned goods and other non-perishable staples. Butchers and greengrocers (produce vendors) were completely separate entities, although they tended to cluster together for convenience’s sake."
Although it is debated and most think it was Piggly Wiggly in Memphis in 1916.
A Quick History of the American Supermarket.
Yes. I usually go to Met Fresh, before that Food Town. And yes, they have the loyalty card scheme - Food Town gives you a free chicken, when you collect enough points. Met Fresh gives you a percentage off - but theirs requires putting in the number in a separate slot, and it doesn't always work. Foodtown, you just tell the cashier your number or they scan a card.
13. January is the best time to see the bright gas giant planet Jupiter in the sky – have you ever seen it?
Yes. But a long time ago, and not in NYC. Too much light pollution.
14. Mark Antony was born today in Rome in 83BCE. Have you ever seen “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Mark Antony?
Yes, it's a horrible movie. I also read the Court case in a Contract's Law course in law school - where Twentieth Century Fox sued Burton and Taylor for misbehavior on the set and damages for delaying production.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/239/913/2379197/
It got settled. The court case isn't about the lawsuit - it's about jurisdiction and whether it should be settled by New York State or Federal Court.
The movie is just bad. I couldn't get through it. They fell in love during it - resulting in delays.
11. The first National State lottery in England was drawn in 1569. The first prize was £5,000, and other prizes included tapestries and high-quality linen cloth. How much does it cost to enter where you live (and have you ever bought a ticket)?
A couple of things? It wasn't initially successful in the US. the First National Lottery in the US which took place on November 18, 1776 was a colossal failure.
"On November 18, 1776, the First Continental Congress enacted a national lottery designed to complete with state and local lotteries at the time. The reason for getting in the lottery game was a simple yet important one for delegates of the thirteen colonies: help fund the costly Revolutionary War."
And we don't do it as a nation? (Probably because it wasn't successful. I'm aware of how confusing the US system is to the rest of the world? We're a nation made up of individually governed member states, which basically means the Federal or Centralized National Government doesn't quite have as much power as people may think?)
"The first U.S. multi-state lottery game was formed in 1985 in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; its flagship game remains Tri-State Megabucks. In 1988, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) was formed with Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for Powerball, which was designed to create large jackpots. Another joint lottery, The Big Game (now called Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by six lotteries as its charter members.
As of October 2020, each of the 45 state lotteries offer both Mega Millions and Powerball as a result of a 2009 agreement between the Mega Millions consortium and MUSL to cross-license their game to one another's members, although the two organizations continue to administer Mega Millions and Powerball separately. Mississippi was the most recent to join both, beginning sales in January 2020. Puerto Rico is the only jurisdiction not to offer both, as they do not offer Mega Millions. "
A lottery ticket usually just costs between $1-5, depending on the number of rows, numbers, type of ticket, etc that you want to buy. I've never spent more than $5 for a lottery ticket. I've never won either. Although I did win at scratch - once, got $20, didn't spend a dime, it was given to me as a Xmas gift.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotteries_in_the_United_States
12. In 1948, the first Supermarket in the UK opened - the Co-op, the country’s first permanent self-service store, in East London’s Manor Park. Do you use one specific supermarket to buy groceries, and do they have a loyalty card scheme you belong to? How does it work?
"Chain grocery retailing was a phenomenon that took off around the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States, with the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (1859) and other small, regional players. Grocery stores of this era tended to be small (generally less than a thousand square feet) and also focused on only one aspect of food retailing. Grocers (and most of the chains fell into this camp) sold what is known as “dry grocery” items, or canned goods and other non-perishable staples. Butchers and greengrocers (produce vendors) were completely separate entities, although they tended to cluster together for convenience’s sake."
Although it is debated and most think it was Piggly Wiggly in Memphis in 1916.
A Quick History of the American Supermarket.
Yes. I usually go to Met Fresh, before that Food Town. And yes, they have the loyalty card scheme - Food Town gives you a free chicken, when you collect enough points. Met Fresh gives you a percentage off - but theirs requires putting in the number in a separate slot, and it doesn't always work. Foodtown, you just tell the cashier your number or they scan a card.
13. January is the best time to see the bright gas giant planet Jupiter in the sky – have you ever seen it?
Yes. But a long time ago, and not in NYC. Too much light pollution.
14. Mark Antony was born today in Rome in 83BCE. Have you ever seen “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Mark Antony?
Yes, it's a horrible movie. I also read the Court case in a Contract's Law course in law school - where Twentieth Century Fox sued Burton and Taylor for misbehavior on the set and damages for delaying production.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/239/913/2379197/
It got settled. The court case isn't about the lawsuit - it's about jurisdiction and whether it should be settled by New York State or Federal Court.
The movie is just bad. I couldn't get through it. They fell in love during it - resulting in delays.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-15 02:27 pm (UTC)12. When I was a kid, my mother would drive from our house across the Missouri River to the closest town and shop at the A&P. There still was a green grocer in that town and we went there occasionally for produce. (Now, the bridge we went by is gone, the green grocer is gone, and all the A&Ps are all gone.) As I grew up, there were stores built closer to us. She used to search the weekly ads carefully, and go to at least a couple stores each week to get the best prices on this or that. Probably spent more in gas than she saved on groceries.
I go to Walmart for packaged goods. They are cheap there. I go to a chain grocer Albertson's for meat, which isn't cheap or good quality at Walmart. Albertson's (and its sisters stores, Safeway) have a loyalty card. You just go to the desk inside the store fill out a form and they hand it to you. No charge. You can get one from more than one chain if you desire. Show your card at the cash register when you check out and you get all the discounts advertised in the store. Sometimes you get a good price, but mostly you just get a better price than they usually have in that chain store. A lot of people don't like shopping at Walmart, because of the days when they paid their help less than the other stores. But those days are over. In Phoenix I used to go to Sprouts, the closest thing to a green grocer we now have (they ran Trader Joe's out of business in Arizona!), but it's farther away here in Tucson and their prices are higher than they once were.
13. Yep, as a matter of fact I saw Jupiter Monday night, when I put my trash can out for Tuesday pick up. I saw something very bright in the sky. Waited to see that it didn't move, and then looked for Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The first object was much brighter and given where it was in the sky I knew from experience it was either Jupiter or Saturn.
14. I agree, Cleopatra with Taylor and Burton, is a horrible movie. I've probably seen some of it five or six times (nothing better on TV), but I've never sat through the whole thing in one sitting. I just got bored and wandered off. (The much older version with Claudette Colbert, is better but not great.)