Lottery tickets, sacrificial goats, and that dusty Bowflex in your garage

I read an interesting article in Tuesday's New York Times that compared purchasing travel insurance to sacrificing goats - just a little something to appease the gods. I've often thought that vitamins and gym memberships fall into that category, too. Get sick? Not me. I have vitamins. I don't take them, but they're in my cupboard, keeping me healthy. 

Lottery tickets are purchased not because I believe I'll win, but because someone will, and if I don't play, it won't be me. Still, according to John Tierney's article, Nepal Airlines officials say that their double goat sacrifice put their ailing Boeing 757 back in service. Goats are safe in Lawrenceville. I'm not the sacrificing kind, unless the sacrifice is downing a big waffle cone of Bruster's Birthday Cake ice cream. Sign me up for that one.