"Instant Win" ticket is the preferred term

Many years from now when you look back and ask yourself rhetorically, "When did the NaturalBlog turn into a Masshole," you'll be able to point to yesterday, Dec. 21, 2008.

That was the day my landlord gave me and Mrs. N-B a Christmas card chock full of $1 scratch tickets, and it provided our entry into the exclusive club of degenerate Massachusetts scratch ticket gamblers.

The odds of winning this game are 1 in 4.86. Given that we had 10 tickets, we should have won twice. Not so. We went 0-for-10.