4, 8, 15, 16, 23 , 42...

Myrna, the assistant planner in my office, is a fan of the hit ABC TV show Lost. She watches it every week with her husband David. We discuss it every Thursday morning. I asked her if she watched it, she says yes, to which I reply - "I have absolutely no idea what is going on, and I love it."

Today she told me a quick story today about how David plays the lotto every week, and how recently he played very special numbers... The Lost numbers.

Needless to say he did not win, but can you imagine the number of people nowadays that play these numbers in the hopes that they too will be the next Hurley? Well when I googled the numbers today, I learned that David was not the only lotto player to have taken a chance on these cursed digits. According to a Wisconsin lottery official, more than 840 people across 5 states played the Lost numbers in a recent October 19th PowerBall drawing for $340 million. Note that 27 states, including the District of Columbia participate in Powerball. If you prorated the number of players to account for all 27 states, that would have meant that over 4,700 people actually had the gusto to play those numbers. Say that the Lost number had won. The $340 million pot would have equaled about $36,000 in David's eyes once the other 4,500 people got their share, and of course half is taken out for taxes.

This would however make for an amazing PR scandal. Say Powerball and ABC got together and rigged the outcome of its next huge payday. The media would have a literal field day on this!! I can see the headlines now - "Man wins $350 million using ABC's hit show's most cursed figures!" Aside from this being totally illegal, it would from a PR standpoint be very cool.