Today I learned a new word, jingoistic. Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy".


Robert Aitken is quite the story teller. 


My father was proud of his prowess at scratch off lottery tickets. Winning a few dollars made his day in a way that I never could understand. From time to time he  would ask me to send him scratch off lottery tickets from Idaho because we have different games. He told me once that those who play the Powerball type lotteries were fools easily separated from their money. He hoped to win big by scratching.


He never did.