what i'd do with a million dollars

Back when I lived in Indiana, we young wage slaves used to pool our money a couple times a year to buy a bunch of state lottery tickets. This always led to the inevitable daydreaming: "What would you do with a million dollars?" First, of course, everyone would quit their jobs. Then they'd travel the world, buy a boat and live on it, live the life they've always dreamed, but was always just out of grasp.

I guess that's why I'm always stunned by embezzlers, senators and other bandits caught stealing money that doesn't belong to them.

EVERYONE spends their ill-gotten gains on granite countertops, a new deck, new cabinets.

Really? You've just made a very bold move and there's no turning back -- you've committed a crime and your life is on the line -- and the reason you did it is to redecorate your kitchen?

When I lived in Dayton in the late 80's, we used to all joke about "the house that NCR built." The story was, this couple both worked for NCR, and one of them (the man, if I recall correctly) began to embezzle money from the company. Over the years, the couple stopped getting along, so they built a wall down the center of their property, each building out their side to an elaborate mansion, but with separate entrances and exits. None of this was apparent from the street -- it looked like a normal home. The woman wouldn't divorce him, as she wanted the ill-gotten gains, and he had to keep supporting her or she'd turn him in. Eventually, they both went to prison, and that's when the world discovered the segregated house.

Wow. People really lose their imagination as they get older.