Lucky Abraham

Better to be lucky than good? A Web site now tries to teach us how to attract luck. One morning long, long ago, it appeared that Abraham got really lucky.

During the recent economic downturn, a lot of folks have been cutting back on things - you know, eating out less, delaying the purchase of a car, maybe even trying to downsize their home, if anyone will buy it. Some people are wisely cutting back on using credit cards and are vacationing at a local park rather than heading to an exotic destination.

What Americans don't seem to be cutting back on, however, is the dream of striking it rich and doing it the easy way - easy, that is, if you're lucky. Amid hard times, people are no longer going to the bank for financial advice. Instead, they're heading to the local Gas-n-Sip to snag a bunch of lottery tickets. A 2009 report by USA Today indicated that more than half the states with lotteries saw an increase in sales during the teeth of the recession. In 2010, total revenue from state lotteries was up by $1 billion from the previous year.

It seems that in desperate times, more people are indeed relying on Lady Luck to be their financial...