Categories: Archives

The regulars hate to have their routines interrupted

Everything about it has a rhythm: the lists of numbers, the scratchy thumping of the… Everything about it has a rhythm: the lists of numbers, the scratchy thumping of the shuttering green machine, the crumpling of losing tickets, and groans of disgust from losing players. The lottery makes its own music; it has its own jargon.

In a quest to support myself this summer, I took a part-time job at a pharmacy down the street from my house. When I started the job, I had no idea I would be expected to run the lottery machine. Never having played the lottery, I could not attest to its force. I always met the idea of winning something for relatively nothing with scorn, but for regular lottery players, it sometimes seems to be a life force.

People who do not play the lottery often ask me how I can run the machine. They shake their heads and laugh at the concept. But they have a point; the machine is not easy. Its daunting face is as complex as a Pittsburgh traffic grid. When I started to learn the machine, I punched the numbers timidly and often made simple mistakes that caused the lottery’s patrons to snap at me and bark, “get someone else who knows what they’re doing”

Pitt News Staff

Share
Published by
Pitt News Staff

Recent Posts

Photos: Pennsylvania candidates host dueling watch parties

Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick and Democratic Attorney General candidate Eugene DePasquale both held watch…

5 hours ago

Photos: Pitt women’s basketball downs Canisius 82-71

Pitt women’s basketball takes down Canisus 82-71 to kick off their season at the Petersen…

5 hours ago

Panthers on Politics

In this episode of Panthers on Politics, Ruby and Piper interview Josh Minsky from the…

7 hours ago

City Couture | City Girl Fall

In this edition of “City Couture,” staff writer Marisa Funari talks about fall and winter…

7 hours ago

Meaning at the Movies | I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for “Scream”

In this edition of “Meaning at the Movies,” staff writer Lauren Deaton explores how “Scream”…

7 hours ago

Don’t Be a Stranger | Inked

In this edition of Don’t Be a Stranger, staff writer Sophia Viggiano discusses tattoos, poems,…

7 hours ago