This first comprehensive history of America's lottery obsession explores the spread of state lotteries and how players and policymakers alike got hooked on wishful dreams of an elusive jackpot. Every week, one in eight Americans place a bet on the dream of a life-changing lottery jackpot. Americans spend more on lottery tickets annually than on video streaming services, concert tickets, books, and movie tickets combined. The story of lotteries in the United States may seem straightforward: tickets are bought predominately by poor people driven by the wishful belief that they will overcome infinitesimal odds and secure lives of luxury. The reality is more complicated. For a Dollar and a Dream shows how, in an era of surging inequality and stagnant upward mobility, millions of Americans turned to the lottery as their only chance at achieving the American Dream. Gamblers were not the only ones who bet on betting. As voters revolted against higher taxes in the late twentieth century, states saw legalized gambling as a panacea, a way of generating a new source of revenue without cutting public services or raising taxes. Even as evidence emerged that lotteries only provided a small percentage of state revenue, and even as data mounted about their appeal to the poor, states kept passing them and kept adding new games, desperate for their longshot gamble to pay off. Alongside stories of lottery winners and losers, Jonathan Cohen shows how gamblers have used prayer to help them win a jackpot, how states tried to pay for schools with scratch-off tickets, and how lottery advertising has targeted lower income and nonwhite communities. For a Dollar and a Dream charts the untold history of the nation's lottery system, revealing how players and policymakers alike got hooked on hopes for a gambling windfall.

Features three stories about people whose lives are forever changed after winning the lottery.

Olivia Beckford is a successful and dynamic dancer from Manchester who has gone on to make her mark on the world’s stage. She has toured the world as a professional dancer, going to all the far-flung corners of the globe, and at the very young age of twenty-seven has now produced this very interesting and handy book. In it, she describes her journey to the top of her game and gives useful and on-point advice to any would-be professional dancer. She covers topics ranging from how to present yourself in auditions, to how to navigate the often choppy waters of the world of professional dance, how to stay on top of and ahead of your game, and how to do it with people still liking you in the end. And calling you back to give you more work! This young author is savvy about life and is a driven, motivated go-getter who shows in this book what it means to achieve success – that it’s not just money and bookings but about a deeper appreciation of life, about strict discipline, emotional intelligence, and having a versatile approach to everything you do. She knows how to use her energy to achieve all she has achieved, and that same energy and drive bounces off the pages of this fascinating book that is both a study of a person in place and time and a very motivational educational piece.

Some Dreams Never Die begins as a massive Collection of lyric poems. The subject matter of the poems go from love to life, politics, personal life experiences and spirituality. Some Dreams Never Die also has six plays that are very diverse dramas that express not only truth and beauty but pain and the cruel reality of the life. Along with the poetry collection and plays, Some Dreams Never Die has several essays on various subjects. These subjects range from personal experiences and personal interest to my beliefs on social issues and politics as well my spiritual beliefs. In these essays I express not only my opinions and beliefs but I try to make attempt to educate and inform others with what I write. Some Dreams Never Die is a complete book that over all express hope, truth, struggle, and most of all pain.

The Second Avenue Deli has been an internationally renowned Gotham landmark for nearly half a century. Over the years, its founder, Abe Lebewohl, provided the best Jewish fare in town, transforming his tiny ten-seat Village eatery into a New York institution. The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook contains more than 160 of Abe Lebewohl’s recipes, including all of the Deli’s peerless renditions of traditional Jewish dishes: chicken soup with matzo balls, chopped liver, gefilte fish, kasha varnishkes, mushroom barley soup, noodle kugel, potato latkes, blintzes, and many more. These versatile dishes are perfect for any occasion—from holiday dinners to Sunday brunches with friends and family. The late Abe Lebewohl was a great restaurateur in the showman tradition and a well-known and much-loved New York personality. His famous Deli attracted hundreds of celebrity patrons, many of whom have graciously contributed to this cookbook not only personal reminiscences but also recipes, running the gamut from Morley Safer’s family brisket to Paul Reiser’s formula for the perfect egg cream. A wonderful blend of New York and Jewish history and mouthwatering recipes, The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook provides a delicious taste of nostalgia.